yarnmule

Rhinebeck Redux

2009-10-25T10:43:00.006-04:00

This was my third year at Rhinebeck, and I went in with my third different strategy.

The first year I went in almost completely planless, and let the veterans who brought me guide me around. I knew I needed a white laceweight, but since I didn't know what to expect, I didn't want to limit myself going in. I was completely overwhelmed, and I actually had to check the blog to figure out what I bought that year. As it turns out, I have knit all of it, so not bad.

Last year I went in with plans. I had a shawl and a stole I knew I wanted to make. I had to get something for a scarf for BBMM. I did quite well actually; I got those three items, and only one extra skein of sock yarn. Somehow, though, it wasn't as FUN as the first year. Or rather, the festival was just as fun, but my focus seemed to distract me from the pretty.

This year I went back to planless, almost. The fact is, I have several sweaters worth of yarn that I have plans for, but haven't touched. Sock Summit ensured that I have reached critical mass in sock yarn. I still have last year's stole on the needles, so no needs on that front. I just had no idea what I could possibly find to buy.

BWAA HA HA HA HA! Oh silly girl, of COURSE I found something to buy.

Anyway, although planless, I did go in prepared. I brought the Ann Budd's Handy Guide to Yarn Requirements, and a calculator. I wanted to make sure if I found something that grabbed me, I would have enough to make whatever it told me it wanted to be. I got a hotel reservation for Saturday night. I didn't want to feel frantic (like I usually do); I wanted to shop slowly, browse copiously, and not brave insane crowds for some of the more popular booths. I will say that I will never, ever do this in one day again. Staying over is totally the way to go, and I'm booking the hotel for next year right away.

So, what was my haul? Small, but much beloved!

First, the pay-off for my strategy. We showed up right at 9 on Saturday morning, and headed straight to the A and B barns; yarn mecca as far as I'm concerned. The Fold's booth was already packed, although not as bad as usual (I have never once been in their booth, because the crush of people generally drives me away). We kept checking back during the day, and by late afternoon the booth was almost completely empty. And, there were some Socks That Rock mill ends left. Oddly, I have never, ever knit with this yarn, so I thought it was time I see what all the fuss is about.

This is the lightweight, and I'm really excited to knit with it. I've been using mostly semi-solids lately, or handpaints with very short color bursts, so this will be a departure. I think I know what I'm making, it just needs to wait for a quiet moment to get everything ready.

Next, something that just grabbed me. Another skein of sock yarn, in my usual colors. The colors reminded me of a very specific sunrise I saw a few weeks ago from my apartment window. I figure if something gives me an intense sense memory, it's really trying hard to come home with me.

This is from Ellen's Half Pint Farm. This is her wool/nylon base, and I really like it. It's a very skinny fingering weight, nice and squishy.

And finally, the big fall. Maple Creek Farms is one of the booths that grabs me every year. i think their colors are incredible, and they have such interesting yarn bases. Somewhere during the day, I started thinking about getting a sweater's worth of yarn, in something soft enough to be next to the skin. I found it here.

This is a superwash merino/nylon/donegal blend. Hmm, that content makes it sound like sock yarn, doesn't it? Yeah. I bought a sweater worth of fingering weight. That's a whole lot of yarn. I may be insane, but this stuff is irresistible. It's unbelievably soft; I keep squishing it, then checking the label to make sure it doesn't have silk or tencel or something in it. I couldn't get the real color of it in the photos; it's a little more teal than it looks. It's a semi-solid, so it's also got some grey and denim blue in it. I said that I wouldn't cast anything on until I finish another huge project I'm working on, but you can see evidence of my failure above. I actually wound the yarn Saturday night, knit the gauge swatch on my way back to the festival Sunday morning. You know, because I needed needles. Ahem.

I found the perfect pattern earlier this week, and I accidentally cast on Friday. My other huge project is not done. Whoops.

Campfire Socks

2009-10-19T21:51:00.009-04:00

It would seem that I have accidentally become a sock pattern designer. I have a Ravelry pattern shop and everything!

Campfire Socks, a pattern designed especially for hand-painted yarns. It's got a slip-stitch sole and a garter stitch base, both of which make it extra warm and cozy. After a chilly, wet weekend at Rhinebeck, they seemed especially perfect.

This sock was truly a labor of love. I bought the yarn well over a year ago, and have spent the entire time searching for a pattern that would showcase it. I couldn't find one, despite starting at least a half dozen socks with it. Finally, I realized I was going to have to figure it out on my own. I swatched stitch patterns until I finally found a combination that made the colors pop instead of obscuring them.

A few rounds of thank yous, first to BBMM. He took the photos, as always. He assisted with some artful prose. And, I went to Sock Summit and Rhinebeck in the span of two months, and he didn't complain. Next, to my two test knitters, Ilona and Sandy. These women were amazing, and this pattern is ten times better because of them.

A Joy Indeed

2009-09-07T19:22:00.003-04:00

Guess what arrived in the mail?

My complimentary copy of this book. Although the listed publish date is October 6, I believe it is available now, at Amazon or a LYS near you.

And why was I graced with a free copy?

Yep, those are mine. The first pattern I've had published in a real live book. It also happens to be the LAST pattern in the book. That'll teach me to start a pattern name with a Z.

Sock Summit part 1: Stash

2009-08-16T14:10:00.017-04:00

Yep, I went to Sock Summit. I hopped on a plane by myself to go to an event where I didn't know anyone, and I had an incredible time. I met some awesome people. I took some amazing classes. I went to wonderful special events. I ate quite possibly the best donut I've ever eaten. And I shopped. Oh yes, I shopped.

The marketplace opened for students only on Thursday evening after classes, for two short hours. My first stop was the Periwinkle Sheep booth. All three of the skeins I bought there are a 80% superwash merino 20% nylon blend. The owner had dyed colors for each member of the Luminary Panel, with a portion of the proceeds donated to Doctors Without Borders. I bought two; Priscilla's Blue With a Kick (for Priscilla Gibson-Roberts) and Sophisticated Nancy (for Nancy Bush).

The color of blue jeans, with shots of a golden brown that perfectly matches the stitching. Awesome.

This one's a semi-solid with shades of burgundy and rose. There was also a basket of Potluck colors for half price. I had to pick up one of those. I am sure that there is some reason that these skeins were considered a "mistake", but I can't for the life of me figure it out. This might be the most interesting colorway I've ever seen. It doesn't photograph especially well, but it's a seafoam green mixed with an orchid color that almost looks overdyed. Gorgeous.

My next purchase was from a new vendor: Van Der Rock Yarns. Their booth had a nice, clean, spare aesthetic, and it seemed like an oasis from the chaos of the marketplace. Again, I bought a superwash/nylon blend, in the Coumarin colorway.

Again my photography skills are not doing this justice; the colors are a little more variegated that it seems. It's a blend of blues and purples, with little shots of fuchsia. Frankly, it looks like a delicious bowl of berries, and I'm having a hard time not licking it.

The last purchase of the evening was from Beyond Basic Knits. Again, a superwash/nylon blend, in the most appropriate color name ever: Rapture.

It's a very light fingering weight, and it's unbelievably soft. I considered sleeping with it on my pillow.

When I got back to the hotel I laid out my new loot and realized that 3 of the 5 skeins I bought were the same colors I always buy; blue and red. I decided my goal for the rest of the weekend was to attempt purchasing other colors. Because seriously, how many more pairs of blue socks do I really need? OK, plenty, but nonetheless some new colors were in order.

I did fall back into the blue pile a couple more times. My next purchase was a mini-skein from Craft's Meow. Her store is so fun; the yarn bases are all named after ice cream. I bought the Ice Cream Sundae base, my usual SW merino/nylon blend. The colorway is Midnight Craving.

Yeah, I know, it looks pretty blue. But it's really at least half purple. Honest.

Next stop was Girl on The Rocks. Please be seated; I don't want you to hurt yourself.

Yep, that would be orange. International Orange, to be specific; named after the color of the Golden Gate Bridge. I actually wound this skein about 10 minutes after I bought it, I liked it that much. I might be swatching already. I also picked up some great stitch markers at this booth; a decrease set imprinted with SSK and K2TOG, and an increase set with M1L and M1R.

The next stop was Serendipitous Ewe. This is their Chance Sock base; superwash/nylon of course.

The color is called Pumpkin Pie, but it really reminds me of marigolds, yellow and orange and gold. Not blue, and not red.

My next booth was Yarny Goodness. She carries a wide variety of indie dyers; this skein is from Sereknity.

The colorway is Green Pastures, and it looks exactly like spring.

One of the classes I took was Chrissy Gardiner's Textured Colorwork Socks. During class, we swatched with worsted weight yarn, but I decided I needed some solid sock yarn immediately. I walked directly from class to the marketplace and skipped lunch in order to pick out colors. I am nothing if not obsessed.

This is Simply Sock Yarn, from Simply Socks Yarn Company. Colors are Silver Lining, Mocha, and Merlot. That's a tiny 24-stitch swatch attached to it.

My last purchase of the summit was something I had been stalking all weekend. I tried not to buy it (really) but in the end I couldn't help myself.

That's pretty blue. Jay Blue, from Hazel Knits, in her Artisan Sock base. It's a deep ocean color, and it's super-saturated, and there was no way I was going home without it.

So the final tally:
Blue or mostly blue: 3 skeins
Red: 1 skein
Might be considered blue but I'm saying purple: 1 mini skein.
Seriously not blue or red: 5 skeins.
Things I regret buying: 0.

Not bad for a weekend's worth.

Something To Talk About

2009-08-10T14:58:00.005-04:00

So it would seem that I've taken a rather long break from the blog. Whoops. Life, you know, getting in the way.

I've been doing a lot of "secret" knitting for the last several months. Since I can't talk about that, and I haven't been doing much else, knitting blog fodder has been hard to come up with. Finally, though, I can tell you a bit about what I've been doing.

Treetop Socks, now in the latest issue of Knitty. I'd be thrilled if you checked them out, and even more thrilled if you knit them. You can see current projects at Ravelry.

Alternative Knitting

2008-11-03T06:37:00.007-05:00

The shawl/blob is, admittedly, taking most of my knitting time. It's progressing nicely; I'm through the first two sections, and have moved on to the biggest baddest main section. The markers are multiplying, the rows are taking longer, but the rhythm is really getting addictive.

The shawl stays at home though, and there's got to be something else to do on the subway, in the car, and and knitting night.

And so, the Christmas knitting begins. These are teeny tiny little tree ornaments (that's a quarter in the middle), one for everyone who will be at the cabin for Christmas this year. Really, they're just miniature socks with little crocheted loops added.

Those are short-row heels and toes, and a little turnback hem. The girls get picot hems:

I did spent the better part of a weekend attempting to embroider names, dates, etc. onto these. It was rather disastrous, and please note they are now plain. I'm calling them finished.

And We're Off

2008-10-26T17:38:00.007-04:00

Yep, I started Irtfa'a. In fact, I think I started within five minutes of my last post. Of course, it's nothing but a blob, and will remain so for a very, very long time. I think by next week I'll at least have enough on the needles to be able to pin out a section. In the meantime, I'm just pausing now and then to bunch it up and gaze at the colors.

It's going well; the yarn is amazingly easy to work with, considering it's lace weight. It's not prone to splitting or snagging at all. The pattern looks hard, but is actually really intuitive, so I'm not as glued to the charts as I thought I'd be. I've only felt the need for one lifeline. Markers though? Those I'm using plenty of.

Laser Focus

2008-10-19T19:25:00.001-04:00

This year, Rhinebeck was not about cute sheep and alpacas. It wasn't about chicken pies or caramel apples (although it might have been about cheese for just a minute). No learning about fleece for me. This year, Rhinebeck was about the yarn, the whole yarn, and nothing but the yarn.

I went in with a plan, but immediately fell down and bought something I had no reason to buy.

Spirit Trail Fiberworks. They get me every time. Last year, I bought the yarn for the Pumpkin Socks there; I got there late in the day, and there wasn't much left, but I managed to find something I loved. This year, I went early. I'm still amazed I managed to walk away with only one skein.

This yarn (Alexandra) is a different base than what I bought last year; it's 100% Superwash Merino, with no nylon. The twist is a lot tighter and more defined as well. Of course, none of that matters, because it is all about the color. Just look at that:

Denim blues and olive greens, with transitions so smooth I can't tell where the blues end and the greens begin. No matter how many pictures I took I couldn't capture both the warmth in the greens and the cool of the blues.

My next purchase stayed firmly against my cheek for a solid fifteen minutes.

It was a utilitarian purchase; BBMM wants a gray scarf. He has no special requirements, but I came across what might be the softest alpaca ever at Times Remembered.

Charcoal grey, with one thin ply of a lighter grey. Eight ounces (about 600 yards) of sport weight, for a ridiculously low price. I hate knitting scarves for the miles of repetition, but this stuff will be so nice to work with I'm almost looking forward to it.

The next purchase was bought for a specific project; Jeanie, from last winter's edition of Knitty. I've always been intrigues by this pattern, but had never found yarn that seemed right for it. Now I have.

Fingering weight Merino/Tencel, from Maple Creek Farm. The drape on this stuff is incredible; it's going to be a perfect match for the pattern.

Browns and greys and cream, all with a really nice sheen; the darker colors almost shimmer.

Finally, the Holy Grail of yarn. I have wanted to make Anne Hanson's Irtfa'a Shawl since the first time I saw it. I've been looking for the perfect yarn ever since. I didn't want a truly black-based color, like the original. I wanted something more like smoke; subtle, natural greys and blues, not too much contrast. I searched all day. It was the one thing I was determined to find, but by late afternoon I thought I might be defeated. I had found a lot of maybes, but nothing that was perfect. Then I found the Briar Rose Fibers booth.

When I first glanced in the booth, I saw a lot of earth tones, a lot of deep saturation, a lot of subtle color changes, and my first thought was ohmygodwhereisthelaceweight. It was late in the day, and there were only about eight skeins left, but I found exactly what I had been looking for.

Extremely fine, light as air laceweight. 100% alpaca. 2500 yards in the skein, so I can make an entire shawl with no joins. Deep and smokey and subtle.

The picture looks really blue, but there is a lot of lavender and silver in there, and a little bit of black. This was not a difficult decision. About two minutes after I bought it, I saw Anne Hanson in the next booth. I took that as I sign. (No, I didn't say anything. Walking up and saying "I just bought yarn for your shawl" just seemed a little too stalker-y to me, and I was worried the gleam of fresh purchases in my eye might be misread as a different gleam altogether.)

You might notice that it's already wound. What you can't see is that it's already swatched, and washed and dried. Cast-on begins in approximately five minutes.

Mosaic Yoke Jacket

2008-10-12T16:52:00.011-04:00

Another FO, and this one is almost the love of my life.

You may be wondering why "almost". Well, notice it is being modeled by the floor, not me.

Yep, another sweater knit, finished, and washed, only to not fit. This one is at least a size too small, maybe a size & a half. I haven't even bothered to figure out why. Probably a gauge problem.

I can't take it out on the sweater though. Just look at it. There's the main stitch pattern, which is both interesting to look at and to knit.

There's the mosaic yoke. This was my first experience with mosaic knitting, and I have to say, I'm a big fan. It's really fun, and knits really fast. This one was done in garter stitch, and the effect is just beautiful.

Then there are all the little details, which are always my favorite part of a good pattern. First , the shaping on the upper part of the yoke.

Isn't that nice? There's something similar going on at the side "seams":

I had so much fun knitting this. It might fit my mother-in-law, and if it does she gets it. If not, I actually may re-knit the whole thing. I would even mind. It was that good.

Pattern: Mosaic Yoke Jacket (Ravelry link), by Veronik Avery. It's published in Color Style, but was excerpted in the most recent issue of Interweave Knits. Again, a brilliant pattern with lovely details.

Yarn & Needles: All stash yarn for this, perhaps another reason I'm not super upset about the failure of it all. A few skeins of black Bernat Lana, two different shades of grey Paton's Classic Merino, and several leftover bits of Cascade 220.

Most of this was knit on a size 4 aluminum circular, with the yoke in size 6 aluminum circular. The sleeves were knit on size 6 bamboo DPN's.

Mods: Yes, but none that I'd recommend. The hems on this are doubled; the pattern tells you to bind off and then seam them on the inside. In my infinite stupidity, I thought it would be cleaner to do a grafted seam instead. Can you say tedious? Also, the inside didn't lay as flat as I would have liked, since I misjudged the amount of room the grafted seam would take. Bad idea.

If I Could Do It Over: Oh, you know.

The Next Big Thing

2008-09-28T18:23:00.008-04:00

It's nearly 70 degrees outside today, so I thought it might be a good day to start Christmas knitting. Heh.

This is actually a re-do project. A very long time ago, as one of my very first knitting projects, I made Christmas stockings for the family. Everyone coming to Christmas at the cabin got one. I used these patterns (which are fabulous). Unfortunately, I also used a popular discount-store worsted weight acrylic yarn (whose name I won't bother to denigrate here). The colors were a little garish, but that wasn't even the worst part. If you've ever done any colorwork, you know that you want your yarn to have a good deal of spring. Acrylic doesn't play that game. So what I have are stockings with a slightly different gauge for each section of patterning. I also have stockings that won't stretch to accommodate all the little gifts I want to stuff them with. So I had a Christmas fit over the weekend and decided they all needed to be re-done.

I ran off to my favorite LYS and picked myself up a bunch of Cascade 220. I've got a lovely heathered forest green (color # 9447), a nice warm cranberry red (8884), and a naturally sheepy heathered oatmeal sort of thing (2442). I'm swatching tonight, and will be knitting by tomorrow (if I can wait that long). The last time I made these, they went very quickly, and I like to think I am a better and faster knitter now. The only way I won't finish in time is if I succumb to another fit of cast-on-itis. Which, given my recent track record, could happen the moment another knitting magazine shows up at my doorstep.

Oh yeah,my last project is finished, and soaking as I write this. Next time, there will be pictures of a FO.

Blob... In Color!

2008-09-22T20:58:00.004-04:00

So I've gotten a pretty good swath of knitting done in the last few weeks, but as I mentioned last time, it's still blobby.

I recently got a subscription to Interweave Knits, and when my first issue arrived, I was immediately smitten with the Mosaic Yoke Jacket (Ravelry link). This was one of those that I had to cast on Right Now. I had an approximate bushel sized load of black Bernat Lana in the stash, so I grabbed a skein and went. In less than a day I had continued the stash-dive, come up with a whole new set of colors, and was on the way.

The original pattern has black and dark grey as the main color: I had those. The colored yoke called for a whole mess of colors I didn't have, didn't want to wait for, and didn't particularly love. So...

Instead of the rust/gold/white, I went with red/beige/white. And where the original had black/beige/blue, I went black/blue/light grey. Was I afraid of the red/blue transition? Yep. But you know what, I think it works, in an Eddie Bauer Americana sort of way. The blue should go well with the jeans that I will inevitably wear with this. All of the colors except the black, red and white are heathered, which I think softens the transitions a little.

I've been doing a lot of small needle knitting lately, so this worsted thing flew by. I think I finished the knitting in about two weeks. It's been at least another two since then, and I'm still crawling my way through the finishing. The hems are all doubled and sewn, and the tedium may kill me. I haven't even allowed my mind to wander to the weaving in of ends yet. Ugh. My current plan is thirty minutes every evening until I'm done. Except maybe tonight. Writing about finishing fulfills that quota, right?

Oh Hai

2008-09-17T22:01:00.003-04:00

I can haz blog now?

It's been a long summer. What have I been up to (other than not blogging)?

- A wedding and a funeral, not necessarily in that order.
- Three secret knitting projects, the last of which is nearly completed.
- A truly killer run of twelve hour days at work.

All of this has led to the longest stretch of "nothing to blog about" that I could have imagined. I have recently, however, started and nearly finished a sweater. Sadly, I'm in the phase of finishing that makes everything look like a blob. Soon, my dears, soon, I will have moved on to blocking and picture-taking. There is real live blogging on the horizon.

Signs of Spring?

2008-05-19T20:29:00.010-04:00

There has been some excitement here, though virtually none of it is knitting related.

About a week ago, BBMM spied this, two floors down on the fire escape:

We spent a couple of days checking the window every hour or so, trying to catch Mommy away from the nest. Two days later, we saw these:

Four eggs, nothing hatched yet. The next few days were a vigil for all of us; she sat on the nest, and we tried to catch her away from the nest. We would get a glimpse every day or two, usually only for a minute, sometimes less. Still eggs. Still a very attentive mother bird, who would come swooping back at the first sign of a pigeon getting too close.

We went away for the weekend. We got back Sunday, and checked the nest as soon as we got back. And look at that:

We think that's three babies, and one unhatched egg. But it could be four babies and some shell remnants. We didn't get too much time to look; within a few seconds we got this:

How cool is that? Yeah, the picture is pretty terrible, but still, that's REAL LIVE NATURE. Right here in NYC, on a fire escape covered with pigeon poop.

We'll be checking back on the babies, but I suspect at this point we won't see much until we get an empty nest.

Oh, and that knitting thing... Well...

Here's the deal. I am working on three projects. They all have deadlines. I am knitting frantically, but I can't tell you about any of it. The tank I was going to make? Yeah, that got put on the back burner during the swatching phase. I have nothing.

So, I'm going to make myself scarce for a bit. I'll pop in occasionally for bird updates and other such random happenings, but the actual knitting content will be scarce. Hopefully, when I'm back for GOOD, I'll have fun things for you. In the meantime, just imagine me hunched over charts and instructions with frantic flying fingers.

So Boring

2008-05-04T19:27:00.004-04:00

I have absolutely nothing interesting to show you. I finished the stole, and then seemingly took a break from interesting knitting.

I am still working on the Brooks Farm Chevrolace, but that's about it. You've seen the Chevrolace about a billion times, so I won't bore you. I will say this though; that Brooks Farm is some pretty, pretty stuff. I'm worried that it won't hold up in sock form; it's very soft and very loosely plied, and I am afraid. I am knitting it as tight as my little fingers can handle, so that should help. It's also knitting up to be quite a thick fabric, so maybe they will be house socks. So if I can avoid wearing them with shoes, and I can keep them out of the dryer, they might be OK.

It seems odd that I'm not working on anything else. Well, I am, but it's a secret, and so far it's just scribbling; no stitches have actually been formed yet. That makes for the most boring blogging ever.

I do have a possibility though. This. I think I got this issue of Interweave at last year's Mets Stitch n' Pitch. I've been eyeing that tank ever since, and it's finally hit the point where I must knit it. I am attempting to use yarn from the stash, and I do have a couple of possibilities. This means, of course, a multitude of swatches.

Sigh. At least next week I can show you those.

Scheherazade

2008-04-21T21:20:00.000-04:00

I preface this entire post with a quote by BBMM: "You hate all of the finishing it and washing it and taking care of it. You just want to knit it and be done with it." When he says things like this about me, he is pretty much always right.

_________________________

We have an FO, and right on schedule. I finished the knitting on Saturday night, and decided to wash and block it before bed.

Now, I read a lot of knitting blogs, and every once in a while I'll find an entry by a knitter who loves blocking lace. They make it sound like a fun little party, this lace-blocking process. I've never had a good time blocking before, but hey, I'd never knit lace before either. I was ready to believe it.

I got out my blocking wires, which I purchased thinking maybe they were the cake & ice cream of lace-blocking parties (not required, but is it really a party without them?). Also because they were rumored to create perfectly straight edges, and there is nothing I like more than a perfectly straight line. I got out my super-lame blocking mat and assembled. I poured myself a Bailey's and coffee, figured that liquored up and wide awake was the best way to approach the project.

I washed the stole, let the extra water drain, laid it out, and started threading the wires through the edges. That was a lot like a party, if by "party" you mean "the most tedious thing I have ever experienced". Granted, it was first time doing this, so I was really bad at it in the beginning, and had to re-do it several times. And granted, I had laid the blocking mat out on the floor, so I was kneeling on the ground the whole time. And of course, I was terrified to damage the thing, so I refused to lift it more than three inches off the mat. And then there's my eyesight, which is not good, and forced me to lean over until my eyeballs nearly merged with the thing. OK, all of that is really my fault, and not the fault of the knitters who lie about how fun blocking is.

So a couple of hours later, I finished threading the wires through. I had another drink and started pinning it out. This part was not so bad. A pin here, a pin there, measure, pin, have a drink, measure, pin again. This I can do. Especially the part where you line up the wires so they are exactly perpendicular to each other. Oh yes, the anal-retentive geometry part; this I am good at. This, of course, was all very narrow-focus, inch at a time type work. When I finally finished, I looked up, and oh my. What had been, just hours before, this crumpled mess, now looked like this:

So yes, I can see where that would be worthy of a party. I've already given you the money shot, so I might as well zoom in for the edging:

The hearts in the edging slay me; I didn't know they were there until after I bought the pattern. It's for a wedding, so it's appropriate, but gawd, how cheesy.

Most of the other blocking shots didn't turn out as well, what with the brightly colored letters and numbers. After it was dry, I couldn't help but lay it out on a dark background and snap away.

Yep, more hearts. They're upside down, but they're there. Here's the center motif:

So I will admit, I can now see where the blocking excitement comes from. I too was very excited to be finished blocking. The result was well worth the effort. And there WAS liquor. Maybe next time I'll hang a disco ball or something.

Pattern: Scheherazade, by Melanie Gibbons (that's a Ravelry link; sorry if you can't get to it!). Again, this is my first lace project, so I have no comparison, but I can tell you this: this was one of the easiest patterns to follow I have ever used. There was nothing confusing or ambiguous or frustrating. The charts are large and clear and easy to read. It seemed almost easy to knit (almost). It's also a great first lace pattern, because the wrong-side rows are straight purl stitch, so you get a little break from the tough stuff. I loved knitting it.

Yarn and Needles: Alpaca with a Twist "Fino", 70% baby alpaca, 30% silk. I used 2 100-gram skeins, and I have plenty left over for a scarf. Lovely stuff; it's almost weightless, but pretty warm. I knit it on size 2 metal circulars; pretty small needles for lace, but the tighter background made the YO's pop really well.

Mods: Oh no, not this one. This may, in fact, be the first time I have ever knit a pattern without changing a single thing. Huh. I might mark that in my calendar.

If I Could Do It Over: I would not change a thing. Except I'd put the blocking mat on a table.

Progress

2008-04-14T09:13:00.005-04:00

All I've got for you this week is a progress report, sans pictures. It's a doozy though.

The body of the stole is complete! All that's left is the edging, and I should have no problem finishing this week.

Now that I've cursed myself with THAT deadline, I might as well go full steam ahead. Next week, there will be pictures. They will probably be blocking pictures, but at least I'll finally get to stretch it out and show it off! I've realized that you haven't seen pictures of it since January, when it was at the halfway point. The poor thing is just crying out for attention.

Brought To You By The Letter F

2008-04-07T06:45:00.008-04:00

You know what's fun? When you do something knowing it's going to be a mistake, but you do it anyway, and then it ends up being a mistake. Then you kick yourself, and that hurts a little, but not as much as knowing that you are an idiot, albeit an idiot with foresight. Yep, that's fun.

When I first created Chevrolace, I spent a lot of time looking for the right yarn. I knew that a true stripe wouldn't work. I knew I didn't want it to be solid. I bought some multi-colors with short color bursts, thinking they would work. They didn't; too much bright color obscured the pattern, and the darker colors didn't photograph well. I finally settled on the Ivory semi-solid from Fleece Artist. Light color to photograph well, a little bit of interest, but not so much that it detracted from the pattern. I loved the color, I loved the sock, it got published, and they were my pride and joy.

Well. I'm the type of girl that will only buy sock yarn if it's machine washable, because I know that I will never, ever have the time and/or patience to hand wash socks. Now the label on the Fleece Artist CLEARLY states that you can machine wash, but lay flat to dry. Of course, the very first time I washed them I accidentally threw them in the dryer. Lo and behold, no problem. They were fine. The second time I accidetnally threw them in the dryer, still fine. In fact, the only evidence of wear was a little fuzzing on the heel, where my shoe rubbed against it. Again, no problem. I soon forgot all about the washing instrcutions, and started treating them like all of my other socks. Sadly, all my other socks contain at least 15% nylon, and these didn't.

Fast forward. I honestly don't know what happened; too much heat in the washer or dryer, or maybe just the cumulative effects of months of abuse. Here is how they look now:

FELTED. Not completely felted, but mostly. They go on this far, but no farther. The ribbing still stretches, but the rest of the sock doesn't. They are finished, merely a bad memory of my lack of interest in taking special care of hand-knits. F*&%$*)((*&!!!

Clearly, another pair of Chevrolace is in order. I can't go through life without a pair of my very own. So I've started over, with a new yarn, which I haven't checked care instructions on yet (some people never learn). Here's sock 1 in progress:

Pretty, no? And so soft. The yarn is Acero from Brooks Farms, and is a blend of superwash merino, silk, and viscose. Please note that there is NO NYLON. Why did I buy it? Because Brooks Farms colors are like CRACK, that's why, and I was at Rhinebeck, and it was all so tempting... Just look at those colors, and how they blend seamlessly.

I can't wait to wear them. I may, however, pay someone to wash them for me.

Stripey

2008-03-24T13:10:00.001-04:00

Another FO! This one is long overdue; I finished the knitting well over a week ago, but I couldn't seem to motivate myself to weave in all the ends. I finally finished this week, and threw it in the wash over the weekend.

Pattern: All from my little head, with some help from Elizabeth Zimmerman's percentage method. I worked it hem-up in the round, joined at the underarm, then raglan decreases to the bottom of the front neckline. Some short row fun, then a turtleneck, and voila!

Details; I worked the hems and the turtleneck in 3x3 rib. The hem depth is about four inches on each, and the turtleneck is six inches long total. I continued the ribbing up the sides of the body (7 ribs) and the sleeve (3 ribs). The raglans are also three stitches wide; one center stitch, and a K2tog or SSK on either side. Yarnmule likes symmetry. Here's a shot of the ribbing on the side:

And here's one of raglans and the turtleneck:

Yarn and Needles: For some reason, I was sure that I would run out of yarn on this. I actually calculated the number of stitches at one point. Let's just say that math is devious and dastardly. Either that or I cannot count.

All the yarn was Suss Cotton. I used almost 3 jumbo skeins of red, less than 1 skein of brown, and about 1/2 each of khaki and teal. This leaves with two untouched skeins, and a whole bunch of partials. I really liked working with this yarn. It's a single loose ply of cotton, but it's wrapped with a tiny thread that appears to be mercerized (it's kind of shiny). This gives the yarn a little texture, and it also seemed to give it a little more bounce than your average cotton yarn. I didn't have any trouble with snagging on the needle tips, and it knit quickly.

The needles are a story all their own. I swatched with size 8 and size 7, and decided on the 7's (I've had about enough of floppy stretchy cotton sweaters). I worked the body on a Boye interchangeable metal circular. Then I worked the sleeves on Bryspun DPN's. After I joined it all, it went back on the metal circ. After I finished I started the post-project clean-up; bagging up the leftover yarn, putting away the needles, etc. I twas then that I realized I had done the body on size 7 and the sleeves on size 8. In all honesty, I tend to knit a little tighter on DPNs than on circs, so the difference is completely unnoticeable.

If I Could Do It Over: You've probably already read The Story of the Ugly Stripes. Obviously I'd do that right the first time. I also had a sizing issue that I'm not going to fix. Every cotton sweater I have ever knit has grown in the laundry or on the body. When I say grown, I mean GROWN; we're talking sleeves that are three inches too long, bodies that could be classified as dresses, the whole deal. When I calculated my measurements for this one, I took that into account, and worked everything about an inch shorter than I really wanted. Lo and behold, the thing shrunk in the wash. After a full day of wear, the body is fine, but the sleeves can best be described as 3/4 length. Not what I was going for. In the end, I tend to push up my sleeves anyway, so I'm going to keep it as is. The sleeves are a little tight too, but only in the forearm. In the end, I tend to push up my sleeves past my elbows anyway, so I'm going to let it go.

The only other minor quibble is with the raglan decreases. I did the standard "decrease on either side of the marker every other row" raglans. This works fine, and if this were a bigger, baggier sweater I'm sure it would be great. But in this slightly fitted version, the sleeve is just a wee bit tight over the shoulders. Shoulders are pointy, after all. Next time I might try to plan the raglans a little more carefully to compensate.

All in all though, I'm pretty pleased. It's a great weekend sweater; very comfortable, pretty well fitted, and more attractive than my average T shirt.

Short-Row Argyle Socks

2008-03-16T16:49:00.001-04:00

Another set of socks finished, and again, they're for BBMM. I do believe they're his favorite yet.

Pattern: I'm a little blown away by this pattern. It's argyle, of course, but it's not done with intarsia or stranding. Every diamond is knit individually with short rows. There's no stranding on the back, no stress about gaps at color changes, and most importantly, no seam. Look at how smooth the color joins are:

This link will take you to the Short-row Argyle Sock calculator, created by Lucia Liljegren. It's a completely customized pattern; you enter foot measurements and gauge, and it will give you complete instructions. It's a brilliant pattern, but it's not easy. I found that it didn't make any sense at all until after I had knit a diamond or two. I will say this though; if you don't like working short rows, don't make this sock.

Yarn and Needles: Aussie Sock, 90% superwash Aussi Merino, 10% nylon, 400 yds/100 g per skein. I used nearly a full skein of Moca (color WS06) for the main color. The contrast is Oak Moss (color WS040). I used less than half a skein.. I used size 1 aluminum DPNs for the whole sock, but I think this would be much easier to knit on two circulars. For most of the sock you are only working on half the stitches, and I had a lot of trouble with held stitches sliding off the needles. I ended up with tiny rubber bands on the needle tips I wasn't using. It worked fine, but sliding the stitches back and forth would have been a lot easier without six rubber bands to undo every time.

Mods: Only one, to the pattern. The originl calls for the diamonds to be on the leg only. When I was done knitting the diamonds I didn't really want to stop, so I added one more on the top of the foot.

It was not an easy modification; I was knitting a little blind, and I definitely made some mistakes because of it. I'm ignoring them though, because I like the finished product.

If I Could Do It Over: Oh, I will. I already want a pair for myself in black and grey. I know BBMM would like a pair in greys as well. They're a great stash buster; 50 grams or less for the contrast diamonds, and just a few yards for the crossing lines. I will probably leave my modification in; I don't like the idea of the pattern stopping at the ankle.

One more picture. This one is in purely for the "Where's Waldo" nature of it. Hint; it's orange and furry, and looking right at you.

That's Better

2008-03-09T22:10:00.000-04:00

As expected, I ripped out the stripes and re-did them.

Mary left a comment in my last post with a link to this; it's an explanation of why knitting the first row of a color change (instead of purling) eliminates the ugly. You can see there is one place above where I couldn't do it; there's a wee bit of ugly at the single-round red stripe. There was the single red round, which I knit. But the next round was another color change, and had I knit that it would have been two knit rounds in a row. That would have interrupted the ribbing, which I thought would be worse than a little bit of dotting. All in all, it's quite an improvement.

Again I'll marvel at the speed at which worsted weight yarn on size 7 needles works up. I will always love knitting the socks, but the sweaters are good for my ego; at least I can think I'm a fast knitter once in a while. I worked on this for most of the weekend, and the knitting itself is done. This does not mean the sweater is done. There's still all this:

If you'll excuse me, my needle and I are going to go have a party.

Just One More Row

2008-03-02T18:40:00.000-05:00

I dreamed about knitting the other night. I'm a little obsessed over a new project and I actually dreamed about knitting it. In the morning when my alarm went off, I had a bizarre moment where my dream and reality collided. In my dream, I was saying "just one more row" over and over again. In reality, I was hitting the snooze bar.

This is my new obsession:

Admittedly, it's not much yet. When it grows up, it's going to be a boxy raglan turtleneck with ribbing all the way up the sides and a wide multi-colored stripe.

I bought a ton of Suss Cotton when they closed the NY Suss store. I ended up with four jumbo (182 yard) skeins of red, two (118 yard) skeins of brown, one of teal and one of khaki. I thought this would be plenty for a sweater, but at the time I was thinking v neck. When I decided to do a turtleneck instead, I had to calculate the amount of red yarn I would need very carefully. I am praying my math will work out, otherwise it may be back to a v neck after all.

Here's the body; four inches of 3x3 ribbing at the hem. About six inches worth of ribbing travels up each side, otherwise it's plain stockinette. It won't finish getting striped until both sleeves are ready to attach.

The first sleeve is done to the armhole. Again, the hem is four inches of 3x3 ribbing, but only three inches continues up the inside of the arm.

I've discovered the first flaw in my evil scheme here. Stripes + ribbing = ugly.

None of the ends have been woven in yet, so it might get a little better, but not much. I haven't decided if I can live with it yet. I'm guessing I can't. So I'll rip back and try the trick of knitting all the way across the first round of every color. I don't think I can do that when I only have one or two rounds of a color, but at least the bigger blocks would look better.

I think I just figured out what I'm working on this evening. I hope I don't dream about it.

Sneak Peaks

2008-02-25T07:36:00.012-05:00

I think I vaguely remember saying something about extra posts last weekend... not so much, huh?

Frankly, I only have the vaguest of updates. I did, in fact, get both of the baby sets finished, wrapped, and given away. Unfortunately, the finishing happened at about 1:30 on a Thursday morning, so I didn't get any pictures. You can look here for details on the first, blue set. Then envision in a lovely beige and you'll get the idea of the second one.

As far as my other knitting, I should be working on the wedding stole. My day job, however, has been kicking my butt for a couple weeks, and I just don't have the mental capacity to knit lace. I managed a couple dozen rows this weekend, but I also made several counting errors, so I decided it's best if I set it aside for a while. I've switched to easier, more non-thinking projects.

First up, since I finished the Pumpkin Socks, another portable, subway knitting project was in order.

You have probably guessed already that these are socks. And you would be right. It's the construction of these that make them fabulous. I do want to wait until I'm close to finished before I reveal more, but know that argyle is my new favorite thing.

This still leaves the stole as my only at-home project, and that just wouldn't do. I needed something for TV and movie watching. Again, you only get a glimpse:

Ah yes, stockinette and wide ribbing, in the round. Worsted weight yarn. So simple, and soothing, and speedy! Projects like this make me feel like a knitting master. If it continues to move at its current pace, I should be able to have a REAL update for you next weekend.

Too Late for Fall

2008-02-17T12:31:00.000-05:00

I've gotten a bit behind on the blogging. in honor of President's Day (or really, a day off work) I'll post a few things over the long weekend.

First up, a catch up post. The Pumpkin Socks are finished! I actually finished them on Super Bowl Sunday, but haven't had time to pictures since.

Pattern: From Sensational Knitted Socks. I used the Garter Rib stitch and the traditional cuff down heel flap method.

Yarn and Needles: The main yarn is Spirit Trail Fiberworks yarn/color # CO-07-09-03. It's 80% superwash Merino and 20% nylon, so they should be quite sturdy. This was an odd yarn to work with for socks. It's extremely soft and squishy in the skein, and I was really excited to make BBMM some "luxury" socks. When first knit up though, it loses a lot of the softness. I think because it's so loosely spun it doesn't hold its squish as well. Very technical explanation, I know, but it's the best I can come with. I was pretty disappointed as I was knitting them, but once I washed them all softness was restored.

The cuff and toe were knit with Aussie Sock, color WS04, Oak Moss . This one's 90% superwash Merino, 10% Nylon. It retained its softness and squishiness quite well, thank you.

The needles were US size 1 aluminum DPNs. I used 80 stitches for these, and they are actually a little loose.

Mods: Just a couple of tweaks here and there. I tweaked the heel placement a bit so the garter rib would be continuous down the heel flap. I also decreased along the gusset in a different place than recommended, again, to keep the ribs flowing continuously.

If I Could Do It Over: I probably wouldn't actually do these over, but I did learn a thing or two. This was the first pair of heel flap socks I have made for BBMM. I prefer knitting short row heels, so all of hs previous socks have had them. I have realized that for me, the heel flaps fit much, much better, so I decided to knit him a pair. However, he has a very shallow arch, and the heel flap doesn't really fit him. It gets all bunchy at the top of the heel. Proof here:

So it's back to short row heels for him; fine with me as I prefer knitting them.

I was pretty worried about running out of yarn on these. I've always knit BBMMs socks toe up for that very reason. After the first heel turn, I actually considered ripping back to redo the heel in solid. I'm not a huge fan of how that looks in heel flaps, so I let it be and kept my fingers crossed. I ended up with plenty of yarn leftover (probably about 10 grams).

As I mentioned before, these are actually a little loose. For his next pair (you'll see a glimpse soon) I am using the same needles over 72 stitches. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that would be enough stitches, but it works, and I probably should have done 72 for these. At least the ribbing keeps them from falling down.

Knitknitknitknitknit

2008-02-12T07:21:00.000-05:00

The baby sets are due Thursday. This was kind of a last minute decision, but in lieu of a baby shower, we are having a "Valentine's lunch" on Thursday at work. Both of the bursting-with-baby mothers will be given gifts in our best "it's not a shower but we love you both" sort of way. This means sets need to completed before I leave for work Thursday morning.

Here's where I'm at:

The blue set is completed, blocked, in a box and ready to be wrapped. This would not be the problem.

The taupe set:

1. The fronts and back are done, blocked, dry and waiting to be seamed.
2. The sleeves are pinned out (remind me to write a post about the joy of blocking wires. i heart them) and still wet. They should be ready for seaming when I get home tonight.
3. The booties; main section are also drying.
4. The i-cord for the booties has not yet been started.
5. The hat is two earflaps and some seed stitch ribbing. No actual hat part has been knit.

The way I figure, all knitting needs to be completed and given a bath before I go to bed tonight. That's one hat and about 24 inches of i-cord. Then, everything will be dry when I get home from work tomorrow. I can spend tomorrow evening seaming and wrapping.

Did I consider calling in sick today? Yes, I did. But in the end, two of my six employees have strep throat, my boss is leaving town tomorrow morning, and there's just no way.

But if you see someone on the subway today knitting i-cord and tearing up, that would be me.

Knitknitknitknitknit.

Like Alice...

2008-01-29T07:03:00.000-05:00

I feel as if I'm late, for a very important date.

I didn't manage to get a post up this weekend, as I was attacked by an unscheduled wave of exhaustion Sunday night. Frankly, I have very little to write about anyway. I didn't finish anything, start anything, or even accomplish much in the past week.

I did, however, purchase something that confused my husband very, very badly.

I have never owned a blocking board. At my upstate cabin, I've always used a towel on the floor, which has worked swimmingly. At the city apartment, things get a little more complicated. We have a cat, so blocking on the floor is out of the question. I have generally only been able to lay out small items (like the baby sweaters) on a towel on my dresser. This makes aggressive blocking (again, the baby sweater) difficult; when I pin the garment to the towel, there's a good chance the towel will just crinkle up and the finished item will be too small.

You all know I am working on the wedding stole. I've bought blocking wires, but it occurred to me that I would NEED a blocking board for this; it has to be stretched aggressively, and it's so delicate that any crinkle of the towel would make for ugly crinkly knitting. I priced out some blocking boards. I need something that will be about seven feet long. That's a lot of blocking board, and a lot of money. I am pretty averse to spending a lot of money on things unless it is absolutely necessary, so the mind starting working, the fingers starting googling, and I came up with an alternative option. This weekend, I went and found it.

Perfect, right? Rigid enough that I can set it just about anywhere, soft enough that I can pin directly into it, and in its own handy-dandy carrying case. That's 36 square feet of blocking real estate right there. Also, about $20 on sale at a discount store.

Plus, I can learn both the alphabet AND numbers! Heh.

Let me say this though; if you don't plan on having children, and you purchase items that are clearly meant for children, don't let your husband discover them accidentally. Heart attacks were narrowly averted.

Halfway Home

2008-01-21T09:14:00.000-05:00

This weekend, I finished the first half of the wedding stole.

We're on the home stretch! I had long ago picked out the provisional cast on and put it on a spare set of needles, so I'm ready to start knitting the second half right away. First though, I had to admire the details. Please note: this is NOT the world's worst job of blocking. I just pinned it out a little so I could see the stitches. No stoles were harmed in the making of these photos.

Let's start at the top; this is the center motif, which will get mirrored so the center is symmetrical.

It's my favorite part; I love the flowing lines that surround this section. And since this is for a wedding, the hidden hearts are perfect.

Here's the whole thing again, but pinned out so you can see the middle a bit better.

Again, flowing graceful lines that pull your eye down the length of it.

Here is the edge motif:

More hidden hearts, more graceful curves.

And then, the latest to be completed, the edging.

My newest stunning realization about lace; knitting on edging is fun, fast, and really gratifying.

I have today off, and the only difficulty I'll face is what to knit. I should start the second baby set, but the lace is calling me.

Trellis and Friends v. 1.0

2008-01-13T19:26:00.000-05:00

I guess I shouldn't have been worried about not having enough time for booties.

I always forget just how small these things are. They took one evening each. The hat, here modeled by Mr. Bowl, took about a day.

Mr. Bowl has a rather flat head; I'm hoping the baby doesn't have the same problem.

The sweater, of course, took a while longer. You can see pictures of it in progress in my last post.

Well worth the effort I think; a little over a week for the whole set. Not much time, not much yarn, but maximum cuteness power.

Pattern: The sweater is Trellis. I really loved knitting this pattern. The cables look complicated, but they're intuitive after a while. The pattern is really thoughtful; the cables all flow together and decrease away really nicely without random extra stitches.

The hat I kind of made up. I started with i-cord, then increased into earflaps until the seemed like the right size. I cast on between the earflaps for the front and the back and worked seed stitch for a while. Then I used the charts from Trellis, and started decreasing when it looked right.

The booties are Ruth's Perfect Baby Booties. It really might be a perfect bootie pattern; it's simple enough that you could really customize it. You can change the ribbing or add a stitch pattern to the top of the foot pretty easily.

Yarn and Needles: Dale of Norway Lerke, 52% merino wool, 48% cotton. I used 3-1/2 skeins (50 gm each) of color 6621, a lovely pale aqua. I could not have picked a better yarn for this pattern. It's soft, not even remotely itchy, and machine washable. Something about the combination of cotton and wool makes the texture look absolutely incredible.

I used size 4 needle circulars and DPNs throughout the set. If you prefer using straight needles you can for the sweater and the booties.

Mods: The sweater was worked pretty much as the pattern. I worked both fronts at the same time and put the buttonholes on the wrong side, but I think that was the only change.

I used a provisional cast-on for the booties so I could graft the sole seam. I also worked the cuff in seed stitch (to match the sweater) instead of ribbing.

If I Could Do It Over: I might work the sweater without side seams, and do the sleeves in the round. I can't do that when I actually do it over though, since the two sets will be seen side-by-side. I think I'll re-block the hat a little smaller. Other than that I'm pretty happy with it.

Next time: the return of the stole.

Baby Boom

2008-01-05T10:07:00.000-05:00

Yet another new project jumped onto the needles last week. This seems to happen any time I don't have to go to work. Hmm.

There are two pregnant women at work, one of whom is a close friend of mine (let's call her Katie, and the other one Carrie). This is the second child for both. The first time they were pregnant, they were due within a month of each other, totally unplanned. They both had boys. (That set of babies was the reason I learned to knit; when I told my MIL that Katie was pregnant, she dragged me to a Michael's and insisted I would learn to knit a baby blanket. That baby blanket never made it past three inches of acrylic nastiness, but I did manage to crank out a pair of booties.)

So this time around, Katie announced she was pregnant. Carrie pulled her aside and said she was too. They compared due dates, and this time they are due within a week of each other. And of course, they are both having boys. They are due in early March, but Katie was almost a month early last time, so I thought it might be time to get cracking on a little baby boy cuteness.

They are both getting Trellis, but if different colors. This is the completed back and fronts of the first one. It's knit in Lerke, a new yarn by Dale that's a merino-cotton blend; perfect for spring. This one's a pale aqua color, and the other will be in a heathered beige. The yarn is great to work with; all the softness and sproinginess of wool, with the beautiful cable-popping definition of cotton. Speaking of cable-popping, here's a close-up of the front cable panel:

Lovely, no? The back is essentially same, but with a seed stitch panel down the center back, bordered by twisted knit stitches. Oh, did you want to see that too?

This weekend it's all about the sleeves. While they're blocking I'll be able to work on the collar, and then the seaming party will begin. If I have time, I'd like to make some matching hats and booties, but we'll see. The wedding stole is crying out for attention, so I may need to soothe her for a while before moving on...

Happiness Is A Warm Sock

2007-12-26T08:29:00.000-05:00

Success! As I expected, I finished the socks on the plane. She put them on immediately after opening them, and a few hours later turned to me and said "Wow, they really are warm!"

Pattern: My own Chevrolace.

Yarn and needles: Trekking XXL, 75% superwash wool, 25% nylon. One 100gm skein in color 66. Knit on size 0 Inox DPN's for a foot circumference of 8 1/2". I loved this yarn. I've seen complaints that it is hard on the hands, but I didn't have that problem. While it's not as soft as some other luxury yarns, I found it to be a step up from Patons Kroy or Opal yarns.

Mods: None. I did make a discovery though; if you are on a deadline, knitting from a pattern you've already memorized is quite a time saver!

On Track

2007-12-21T06:33:00.000-05:00

This afternoon, I hop on a plane to Minnesota. Somehow, some way, the Christmas socks are right on track.

I made it through the foot and heel on Sunday. Since then, I've worked two 11-hour days and two 14-hour days, missed Wednesday night knitting group, taken car service home from work (losing valuable subway knitting time) and still, they will be done.

Ten rounds left on leg. Twelve rows of ribbing. A little sewn bind-off, two ends to weave in, and I finish with time to spare. I can't fathom how I did it, but I'll just allow it to defy expectation and be grateful.

The only other knitting I'm bringing on this trip is the pumpkin socks. When we gt back, the wedding stole will gt picked up with a vengeance. I can't wait to get back to working on that; I've missed it terribly.

There will be FO shots when I get back. I just have to convince the SIL-to-be whom I barely know that photo shoots in the cold and snow are FUN!

The Home Stretch

2007-12-16T10:09:00.001-05:00

One down, one to go.

I finished the first sock almost exactly one week after I started it. If the second sock moves at the same rate, I should finish on the plane on my way to the intended recipient's home. How's that for pushing the limit?

No other knitting has happened since I started these. Not a single stitch on the stole, not a single stitch on the pumpkin socks. I got nothing.

I do, however, have a winter storm blowing through the city. Perfect excuse to stay in and knit like the wind.

Christmas Knitting

2007-12-09T13:46:00.000-05:00

I wasn't going to do any Christmas knitting this year. I've knit under pressure a few times (I remember in particular staying up until 3 am Christmas morning to finish a scarf) and it's just not so fun. This is supposed to be a hobby, after all, and once you throw in a deadline it tends to turn into work.

Then... my brother and I are e-mailing wish lists back and forth, and one of the items on his fiance's wish list was wool socks. He even included a little note that he could pick them up for me, since he knows where to get them. It's a good thing we weren't on the phone, or I would have snorted in his ear. I quizzed him a bit about her favorite colors (jewel tones) and ran to a LYS.

I picked up a ball of Trekking, which I've never knit with, but long wanted to. Look; pretty:

And what pattern would I be knitting? Oh please, like you don't already know.

Of course, the Chevrolace looks all crunchy and strange when it's not on a foot, but you'll get a preview of that when I'm a little further along. I'm knitting these at a looser gauge than I did for mine, and I have to say I like them better. The YO's are quite a bit bigger and more obvious, which is fun.

So yes, I now have deadline knitting. We are leaving for Minnesota on the 21st. Since we're staying with my brother and fiancee, these have to be finished before we get there. Tick tock.

Introducing Chevrolace

2007-12-05T13:00:00.000-05:00

For your knitting pleasure...

Pattern free of charge at the always fabulous Knitty. Go. View. Knit. Enjoy!

Forest And Food

2007-12-03T21:20:00.000-05:00

I had myself a very knitterly weekend, staying inside and hiding from the cold. I've been trying to restrict myself to two projects; the stole, and the latest pair of socks for travel knitting. As it turns out, progress shows quickly when you're not spreading it around so much.

First up is a stole update. I'm not going to show any more pictures until I have the first half done, but it is moving along. I am through row 170 of the first half; only about 100 to go. Hmm, that seems worse when I type it. OK, let's try again. I am well over 1/4 of the way through! See, that's better. I did get about 50 rows done this weekend, so I'm feeling pretty good about it, in all it's white blobbiness.

Fear not, you do get a picture. These are the latest subway knitting, more socks for BBMM. He has deemed them the Pumpkin Socks, and there really isn't a name more appropriate.

This is knit in the Spirit Trails Fiberworks yarn I bought at Rhinebeck. The solid olive was also bought at Rhinebeck, and is an attempt to get the pair out of one skein. The toes will be solid as well. I should know better than to make men's socks top-down, but I really wanted BBMM to have a pair with heel flaps; I think he'll like the way they fit better than short-row heels.

There's something about hand-dyed yarn that I swear makes me knit faster. Everything is interesting to knit, even when it really, really isn't. I love that every stitch is a slightly different color. The color in this picture is not exactly perfect; it's close, but in reality everything is a little less bright, a little more subtle, and quite a bit less orange. On the train tonight, I started trying to name every little bit of color that came across the needles. I found spruce and moss, and mahogany and pumpkin, and that golden orange-yellow that you only ever see in autumn leaves at their absolute peak. I got butterscotch and milk chocolate and brown sugar and olives and curry.

It won't take me long to finish these, but I suspect I will remain hungry until I do.

Gifting Starts Early

2007-11-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

My Mom was here for the week. Among the topics of conversation; the difficulty in finding wool socks. The hatred of seams on the toes of socks. The irritation of always having cold feet. The last straw was when she looked at The Ugly socks and said "oh, they're so cute!". In the end, the family decided that they were kind of like the circus...

So, Mom is now the proud owner of a lovely (hideous) pair of Jaywalkers. Sadly, I never got a chance to take pictures of her feet, so you'll have to settle for this one.

So all is well with the world; I've found a new recipient for handmade socks, Mom has something to warm her feet, and I don't have to listen to BBMM mocking the Circus Socks. Good times...

Pattern: Jaywalkers, by Grumperina, from Magknits. My love for this pattern is complete; I will probably join the rest of the blogosphere in knitting several pairs of these. It's easy enough to be a portable, pick-up-at-any-time knit. It's interesting enough to not create second sock syndrome. I knit the larger size, over 84 stitches.

Yarn and Needles: Opal , 75% Superwash Wool, 25% Nylon. Less than one skein of color # 3. I used size 0 aluminum DPN's, for some ridiculously tight gauge that I didn't write down anywhere. The yarn is not the softest stuff in the world, but it's certainly acceptable. It's not itchy, it's just not luscious. I still have another full skein of this stuff left over. Maybe Mom and I need matching socks...

Mods: The only thing I changed was the cuff ribbing. I didn't like the way 2x2 rib looked in this yarn, and I wanted the ribbing to match up to the leg pattern a little better. So I cast on 80 stitches and worked a 1x1 twisted rib. On the last row of ribbing I increased a stitch at the end of each needle to get me back to 84 stitches. This got me a ribbing i liked, and the knit stitches matched up to the center knit stitch in the leg pattern. From there on out, everything was done exactly as written.

If I Could Do It Over: Oh, and I will. I liked the ribbing mod I made, so I would do that again. And you might notice something in the picture above; I just knit and knit without thinking, and there's a nasty bit of extra striping at the ankle. Had I been thinking, I could have made the stripes match at that point. Other than that, I would not change a thing. This is just the perfect pattern for self-striping yarns; I might make another pair with the Regia Silk leftover from Devan. I bet Mom would like those too...

Next in the queue, a new pair of socks for BBMM, knit from yarn bought at Rhinebeck. And of course, more stole. I'm up to 100 rows, and I've got a lot of football to watch today. May the force be with me!

My New Best Friend

2007-11-20T17:24:00.000-05:00

You know what everybody always wants to see? Pictures of a white blob. Oh wait, you know what's better? Really poorly lit pictures of a white blob. Fun!

It is though, a white blob with 90 rows completed. I've only had to rip back to a lifeline once, and I'm now able to work on it while, say, having a conversation. OK, no, but while listening to the radio. It's better.

And here is a good part of the reason that I am still sane.

It's my new best friend, the Yarn Clam. You make a center pull pall, then you shove it in there with the center end coming out of the top, like so.

And miraculously, it actually works. It doesn't tangle, it doesn't snag, there is no tugging or untangling or screaming or cursing of any kind. It also keeps me from doing things like spilling coffee on the yarn, or leaving the yarn out as a present for the cat, or any other stupid thing that I could otherwise be expected to do with white laceweight.

We are off tonight to host Thanksgiving upstate. I should have a pretty good update for you early next week though. A hint; it's ugly.

Pipes Are Funny

2007-11-12T21:50:00.000-05:00

This weekend we were, oddly enough, gifted a corn cob pipe. It's a long story involving a snowman, a Christmas tree, and free gifts with purchase, but there it is. The timing of it has simply added to my complete and total amusement with my latest finished object.

How could I not work the pipe into the photos? It had to be done.

This being the simplest knit in the history of the world, there are no real details to show off. Here's a gratuitous duplicate stitch success shot though:

Pattern: "Bob Dobbs", from Domiknitrix. Knit in size Large, no changes from the pattern as written. This is the simplest of simple knits; stockinette in the round to the armholes. Ribbing is worked vertically all the way up from the armholes, so no picking up stitches there. Most neck stitches are left on the needles to be worked into ribbing later. There are a few stitches picked up around the neck, but not many. Even the duplicate stitch is easy, although you do have to follow a chart for that. The size I made fits perfectly, and exactly as expected. I knit the back a little too long, actually, so it looks a little funny laying flat, but fits BBMM well; most sweaters are a little short in the back for him, so I compensated for that.

I still love Domiknitrix's patterns completely. Her hatred of seaming and love of circular knitting rival mine. They're also really well crafted; they have almost couture detail to them. And she doesn't hesitate to do things differently if they'll work better. Even on this, the armhole ribbing is a little different, but it is sleek and bulk-free, fits a little better than normal picked up ribbing. The neck ribbing has decreases in it so it fits closely to the neck instead of winging out at the shoulders like the usual ribbing. Good stuff.

Yarn & Needles: Patons Classic Merino, 100% Merino Wool, 223 yards per skein. I used three skeins of Dark Grey Mix for the body, and less than a skein of Grey Mix for the lighter contrast. For the black contrast, I used a partial skein of Bernat Lana, also 100% Merino Wool. These two yarns are basically identical. I used size 7 metal circulars for the whole thing.

Mods: Nope. The pattern indicates that you could make a few modifications and knit the pattern in intarsia, but that would have required knitting flat, so I didn't do it. Frankly, I haven't had a lot of success with intarsia anyway.

If I Could Do It Over: I don't think I would change anything, except maybe using machine washable wool. Hand washing; ugh. For this though, I figured I could get away with it; how often is BBMM really going to wear this?

All in all, this was a fantastic movie-watching project. And the giggling it's inspired is well worth the time and effort I put into it.

Oh, and do be careful; Big Brother Bob is watching.

Naughty Knitter

2007-11-05T19:48:00.000-05:00

So Bob Dobbs, despite my doom and gloom, is moving along swimmingly. The duplicate stitch is not nearly as difficult as I expected, and it looks quite good. I would say I'm about 2/3 of the way done with it. I actually thought I might finish this weekend, so when I packed up for the weekend I brought the wedding stole ingredients with me, just in case.

Saturday night I sat down to work on it, only to realize I had left the chart at home. Terribly upsetting. So I did the only thing a knitter can do to console herself; cast on for something new!

Yes, the wedding stole is now officially a work in progress. I'm only about 20 rows in, so it's an inch worth of mangled blob, not worth showing. What it is though, is absorbing, exciting, fun knitting. It's also, I'm sad to say, going to take forever. Twenty rows per weekend = 28 weekends plus edging. That's over six months, with no breaks. This is going to dedication worthy of a marriage!

My plan at the moment is to only work on it on weekends, or the random day off when I am absolutely alone. It really does require tremendous concentration; no TV, no chatting, not even radio. Frankly, the phone ringing once on Saturday was enough to nearly give me fits.

So weekends are for stole, weeknights are for Bob Dobbs, and I hope to be finished with that by the next week (yes, I am being overly optimistic). I will say this about Bob; I laugh every time I look at it. It might be the kind of funny that only I can understand. Stay tuned, and you too can decide if I'm insane!

Decisions, Decisions.

2007-10-29T12:15:00.000-04:00

Shall we do a progress report first?

Hey, look at Bob Dobbs! The interminable stockinette stitch is over, the ends are woven in, and it's ready for the duplicate stitching. It hasn't been blocked yet, so there's some buckling and folding, but you get the idea.

It fits beautifully, which is nice. I dread the duplicate stitch, which means it will probably be easier and faster than I ever imagined.

The Ugliest Jaywalkers ever:

One done. Seriously though, that is some eye-searing knitting going on right there. I love love love the pattern, and can't wait to knit it again in something I don't hate. maybe that leftover Regia Silk I've got laying around...

But I've got a new love. Her name is Scheherazade. I have the pattern, I have the yarn, I have the gauge swatch, I've got the needles. I've got itchy fingers. I'm worried that if I start now, I'll never go back to the Bob Dobbs. I'm trying, in fact, to wait to cast on until Thanksgiving week, which I have off. Most likely I will start this weekend. Or maybe today. Place your bets now...

Knitters, Knitters Everywhere...

2007-10-22T20:58:00.000-04:00

...but not a one on camera! In other words, I went to Rhinebeck, and the only pictures I brought back were of animals. Er, non-human animals, I guess. Also, I brought back effusive praise for the joy that is Rhinebeck. Get cozy, this is a long one.

First things first, I guess. My friend Cathy drove me there, then squired me around all day. She has the Rhinebeck experience, see, and knew just the right order in which to do things. As she is wise and good, she said shopping first.

First, yarn for the wedding stole. No, I don't know which stole I'm making yet, but that's no reason to turn down bargain prices on alpaca/silk prettiness.

I was originally looking for something finer and slipperier, but I was convinced otherwise. The Q & A went like this.

Cathy: When's the wedding?

Me: Next September.

Cathy: And where is it?

Me: Minnesota.

Cathy: So it's going to be cold then.

Me: Oh. Yeah. I guess it is. Oh.

See how dumb? See how I just NEED other knitters around to keep me from doing stupid stuff all the time? So yes, I went for a little heavier weight than I thought originally, and a little warmer fiber than I thought originally. It will be a little more substantial, and may actually keep the bride from shivering like a scared bunny all day.

Other than that, it was all sock yarn. Don't worry though; I am not feeling deprived. First, some boring solids.

These are "Aussie Sock", 90% Aussie superwash merino, 10% nylon. 400 yards. $13 each. I KNOW! Although the color in the picture is awful, these are an olive and a dark brown. They're destined to be socks for BBMM; he is direly in need of socks made from soft, squishy yarn. I'm thinking of a houndstooth or herringbone pattern; I'm ready for a little colorwork. In all honesty, it was difficult to spend money on basic solid sock yarn when there was so much hand dyed beauty about me. I probably should have gotten more. But then there was this:

Can't you just see all that Autumny goodness wrapped around your feet? It's Spirit Trail Fiberworks, 80% superwash merino, 20% nylon. It's loosely spun, but I think the nylon content will keep it durable. There's no color name listed, but it's mostly pumpkin and olive, with a little bit of cocoa brown thrown in. This is actually for BBMM too; they're the perfect colors for him. If this knits up the way I think it will, I'll just do some plain stockinette socks, or a simple garter rib. I don't want anything that will distract from that gorgeous color.

Last but not least, something for me! Maybe more than one thing.

This is all from my very favorite booth; Brooks Farm Yarn. We blazed through when we first arrived, and for some reason I didn't see the WALL full of sock yarn. When we went back the second time, I did. Wowsa. It's called Acero, the sock yarn. It's superwash wool and silk and viscose, and the shimmer will just kill you. And the dyeing... We spent a solid hour in there, and the whole time we kept saying "OK, I want this one. No wait, look at that one! Oh, and how about that!" I swear, I don't know how I made it out of there with only three skeins. While we were in the checkout line, Cathy asked who did the dying. The guy we were talking to pointed to someone and said "Sherry does". Seriously, one person. First, she's AMAZING, and second, how does one person dye all that yarn?! There must have been at least 50 colorways. Crazy talented, she is. I think maybe you need some close-ups. you know, so I can prove it to you.

First the solid:

It's not really a solid though. It's LIKE a solid, but upon closer inspection it's heathery and marled and the fibers all took the dye differently and I want to use it for a pillow. I have been looking for a red semi-solid for a long time, and I thought I knew exactly what I wanted,but I was totally wrong. This is what I wanted; exactly this.

And here's the variegated.

We have a phrase in the garment industry; denim-friendly. It basically means something that will look good with jeans. This here is the friendliest of the denim-friendly. It's also very me-friendly. I love it so much.

After the shopping, we took a little lunch break. I wanted to go see the animals, but Cathy said we had to look at fleece first. And wouldn't you know it, fleece is pretty cool! I didn't take pictures of it, which is probably for the best, because who wants lanolin all over their camera lens? Quite a learning experience, the fleece gazing. Cathy taught me about crimp and staple length and all that jazz. She's trying to turn me into a spinner. Her favorite is Cormo, because she loves spinning with it. My favorite is Ramboulet, because mmmm, silky... I thought it was cool that I walked in knowing nothing and walked out going "oh that one feels dry" and "what's with all the vegetable matter?". Anyway, I will, from this day forward, snort in disgust at the phrase "wool".

After the fleece, I got to see the animals. My favorites, of course, were the llamas and alpacas, although I can't really tell them apart. BBMM and I decided afterward that the long snouted ones are probably llamas and the shorter snouted ones were the alpacas. The fact that we both agreed probably means that we're wrong, but hey! Look over there! Cute things!

And then came the sheep. This one loved the camera, and the people, and was trying to say hi to everyone.

This was my favorite sheep; his butt wiggled a lot when he walked, and seemed very excited to be there. He was quite talkative. Plus, chocolate wool!

So yes, My First Rhinebeck may be over, but the memories (and the yarn) will live on for a while. Certainly long enough to ensure that I go back next year.

Almost Here...

2007-10-20T06:42:00.000-04:00

In about an hour, I'll be hopping into my friend blogless Cathy's car and heading to Rhinebeck. I had a little bit of a brain fart and didn't realize until Tuesday night that it was this weekend. Don't worry though, I've gotten over the happy shock, and I'm ready!

I've never been to Rhinebeck. In fact, I never really knew things like this existed before this year. Of course, until I started going to my Wednesday night knitting group, I didn't really know any knitters in person. What a sad, sorry existence. ;)

Anyway, I'm so excited I could bust, and I keep telling myself to remember my budget and not go all crazy. I've set up a few rules for myself; we'll tally up how I do after I get back.

1. No commercial yarns. Duh. I don't want to buy here what I can find elsewhere. I want local, I want unique, I want special. This will be the easiest rule to follow.

2. Only sock yarn. I have shocking amounts of sweater yarn in my stash, and I just would rather knit socks right now. I can't even really build up a stash of the sock yarn, because I'm using it almost as quickly as I'm buying it. I think I only have 2 pair left in the stash. Totally unacceptable.

3. The only exception to the sock yarn rule is if I find yarn for the wedding stole. Yeah, I decided to hold off and see what I can find at Rhinebeck. I'm hoping I'll come up with something extra special.

4. I have a budget. It's not a tight budget; this is my first fiber festival, and I don't want to be tortured by not being able to buy something I love. Which leads to the real rule; I won't buy anything I don't love. If I don't get teary-eyed or let out an "ooooh" when I see it, it's not coming home with me. Either that or I'll be so overwhelmed with choice that I'll double my budget and forget about that whole pesky rent thing.

Off I go to pack camera, knitting for the road, and very, very comfortable shoes!

Slipstitch Rib Socks

2007-10-10T23:44:00.000-04:00

Another pair of socks off the needles.

There's a little bit of the contrast going on. I knew two skeins of yarn wasn't quite going to do it. I had about half a skein of the dark grey left from the last socks, so I took a chance.

Pattern: All from "Sensational Knitted Socks", but in pieces. The stitch pattern is Slipstitch Rib, but I used my favorite toe-up short row recipe. I love the stitch pattern. It's really, really simple, but not quite mind-numbing. It's quick; when 1/3 of the stitches are slipped it moves right along. And of course, Charlene Schurch should be named Queen of Sockland.

Yarn & Needles: Paton's Kroy Socks (again) in Glencheck, two 50 gm skeins. Toes, heels and cuffs in the Charcoal Grey color Kroy I used for BBMM's last pair of socks. It seemed like about a half a skein leftover, but I didn't actually check at all, just eyeballed it. In the main color, I probably had about 5 yards per skein leftover. In the Charcoal, I unraveled my gauge swatch from the last pair, spliced the yarn twice, and had about 5 inches left. It was really not pretty. My new mantra: I will always buy three skeins. Seriously, that was totally not worth it.

I knit the foot, through the heel, on size 0 needles, and the leg on size 1. As usual, I actually knit 3 socks. The first time through I forgot to switch up to the size 1's. I'm fairly certain I actually finished the sock; I may have even woven in the ends. (I do this every time. Really; it never gets better. I am currently working on two different pairs of socks. They have both been ripped out all the way back to nothing. One was literally halfway up the leg; probably about 3/4 of the way done. You know the saying that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? Yeah, I am clearly nuts. I think I'm going to tattoo "Try it on" across my knuckles.)

Mods: Nope, not really.

If I Could Do It Over: I'm not sure about the contrast bits. The heel is a little small and triangly. The cuff is a little funny; it would look better if it were two inches long instead of one. The toe is nice, so maybe next time just toe and long cuff.

If I were making these for anyone else I would have made the whole leg longer. But BBMM likes his socks pretty short, and since the whole point of handmade socks is perfect fit and customization, they are exactly the right length.

I haven't decided on the next pair of socks for BBMM yet. I know they will be brown or beige. I also know I will buy a better yarn. The main benefit of Paton's Kroy is that it is cheap. When I wasn't sure how I'd feel about knitting socks, that was a big benefit. But I am now hooked, and I'm working my way through some better yarns. I used some Fleece Artist; loved it. I'm currently working with Louet Gems; absolutely heavenly. I've swatched with some Mountain Colors Bearfoot, and drooled on it. I thought I had a rule about making sure my sock yarn had nylon in it for durability. I am totally over that; the difference in handfeel (footfeel?) between the Kroy and the better yarns is astonishing. I think he would appreciate it. I know it would make the knitting more enjoyable.

Take Two

2007-10-01T20:00:00.001-04:00

We have movement! Uh, no, not so much in the knitting... I got distracted on my trip by a secret unbloggable project, so no FO's to show off.

I do have something though; the SIL to be has taken fabulous photos of her just-purchased wedding dress!

Pretty, isn't it? I know, I know, you want DETAILS. Here's the back:

And a close-up of the front; just lovely.

Of course, I'm not just showing you pictures for fun. There's work to be done here. The pattern I had chosen for the stole just isn't going to work for this dress. It's a little too busy, and I think it will compete with the beading too much.

So, I've picked out three more options (thank you Ravelry!) All will be in white, to match the dress. Thankfully, the samples are in color so you can see details more clearly.

First up, Plum Lotus, by Badcat Designs. I love the rounded motifs in this. Obviously I would make it bigger so it's a true stole size.

Second, Cocoon Lace by Evelyn A. Clark. I have heard nothing but good things about her patterns. Again, this has the rounded shapes, although the motifs are quite a bit smaller than in the first one.

Last but not least, Scheherazade by Melanie Gibbons. This was Mystery Stole 2, so I know it's been test knit, a lot. This is the most different of the three. I like the plain ground on this one, and the motif mimic the motif in the beading. Plus, heart shapes at the ends!

I would VERY much appreciate votes in the comments. I'm having an incredibly difficult time with this decision, and any input would help. And if somebody makes a comment that seals the deal for me, there might be a teeny tiny prize in it for you! Oh heck, I might as well make it a medium sized prize. ;)

PS: The beading on the dress, the lace weight yarn, should I be concerned about a tragedy, or should I just knit blindly on? You know I'm all for blind knitting...

Victory is Mine!

2007-09-23T22:26:00.000-04:00

Now that's a fitted sweater! Try number two is finished, and it's what I envisioned it being all along.

A little front detail:

The hemline raises up at the front and back, then dips down toward the side seams, courtesy of the diagonal ribs.

And a close-up of the cable:

Pattern: Paulina, a free pattern from Berroco. This pattern was actually pretty good; the directions were clear, there didn't seem to be any errors. It was the little things that drove me crazy. The gauge was given in ribbing and in cable pattern, but not stockinette. I don't know about you, but I find measuring gauge in ribbing pretty much impossible. There was no schematic; it would have been nice to know how big the pieces should have been as I went along. This is partly me trying to blame the too-big sweater on the pattern, which is just wrong. I could have stopped at any point and measured, and figured it out if I thought about it. But let's face it, I'm clearly not very observant, and it would have been nice to have some blinking red warning lights or something.

Yarn & Needles: Filatura Lanarota Royal Linen, 50% cotton, 30% viscose, (rayon in the states) 20% linen. Color number 1, less than 8 skeins. It's a bit difficult to say how much yarn I actually used. I had 10 skeins, and I have 2 untouched skeins, plus many partials leftover. I did have 4 separate skeins attached at the same time for the shoulders, so I think I could have done it with or 7 if I economized. The yarn is a little bizarre; lots of tiny plies in beige and white, which looks like it would snag a lot, but didn't. It looks like kitchen twine coming off the skein, but softens up right away. I expected it to hurt my hands, but it didn't. Washing and drying made a huge difference in this yarn, smoothing out the stitches and softening the fabric considerably, giving it nice drape.

The first time around I used a size 6 needle, which gave me a nice drapey stockinette stitch. I knit ribbing a little looser than stockinette though, so I went down to a size 5 for the final go. This would have been too tight in stockinette, but it worked out beautifully in the end. I got enough structure that it doesn't stretch out of shape lengthwise, as cotton tends to do.

Mods: Every mod I made was because of the first failed attempt. The seams were bulky, so I worked in the round. It was too big, so I took out 16 stitches; four on each side of both cables. The front neck split was too high, so I dropped it by 10 rounds.

If I could do it over: Hey, I already did! That's exactly the way it should work. The first time was disastrous, but fixable. The second time is pretty much perfect.

I'm flying to L.A. for work later this week, which should provide plenty of knitting time. I hope to finish the Slipstitch Rib socks on the plane. And now that the Bob Dobbs is my only home project, it's flying off the needles. Of course, the knitting won't be the labor intensive part of this project; I'm already afraid of the miles of duplicate stitch that lay ahead.

Ugh

2007-09-14T07:20:00.000-04:00

I've sort of gone to the land of the lost, haven't I? Don't worry, you haven't missed much.

I got a promotion at work. It's a small company, so promotions tend to fall into the category of "wow, there's this huge job that nobody is doing, and you seem perfect for it!". So yeah, there's this huge job... I've been working 10 to 11 hour days since Labor Day. It's cutting into the knitting time significantly. At the beginning of the week, I had 16 rows left on the Lunch bag sweater. Today, I have 14 rows left. I've only worked on it one night this week, and I got through two rows before I fell asleep on the couch with it in my hands. The big push is over though, so I think next week things should settle down to a dull roar, and I will get my life back. This is important; at this point the pizza delivery guy has seen me about as much as my husband has.

I am making reasonable progress on the Slip-Stitch Rib socks though; I think I'm around 3/4 of the way done with the foot. It's a good thing I knit on the train, or my fingers would be absolutely twitchy by now. And of course, there's always the weekend. I'm hoping to finish the Lunch bag sweater on Saturday, just in time to pack it away and take out the fall clothes.

Still no word on the wedding shawl either. She actually bought a dress, but can't find a picture of it online. She's promised to send me digital photos. She and my brother are moving into their new house today though, so I imagine it will be a while before I see anything. I am waiting with bated breath...

It's What?

2007-09-04T22:31:00.000-04:00

I realized today that it's almost autumn. I got home from work at my usual time, and it was already dusk. Wow, when did that happen? Was it really just over the weekend? Granted, I had a four-day weekend, but still. Of course, this means that you will all be dealing with poorly colored knitting photos until, oh, June or so. OK, not really; there are always weekends. But for now, here's a really bad photo of something you've already seen!

Here's another; proof that I made it to the armholes.

Yes, I made some progress this weekend. This time, I tried it on (I learn slowly, but apparently it happens eventually). It's much better, nice and fitted, as it should be. I'll have to come up with a different name for it though; Lunch Bag is no longer appropriate. I am not even remotely upset about that. If all goes well, I should be finished in about a week; now that I've decreased a bit, it's moving along pretty quickly.

I also finished the first of BBMM's Slip Stitch Rib socks. This time it fits (man, I say that way too often). No photos of that though, not until the pair is complete. That may take quite a while, as I'm not particularly motivated.

I'm hoping I get a final wedding dress decision this week. I am dying to get started, and would love to spend Saturday shopping for a pattern and some yarn. If not, I will get back to the Bob Dobbs vest that I abandoned so long ago, in favor of the Lunch Bag re-do. After all, autumn requires sweater vests.

Screeeeeeech!

2007-08-30T07:01:00.000-04:00

Ah, the best laid plans...

About twenty minutes before I left to make the stole purchases, I got an e-mail from my Mom. The bride-to-be, her mother and grandmother, and my mom had all gone to buy The Dress on Saturday. The bride-to-be tried it on first, of course. And the moms didn't like it. Oh dear.

I gather there was much wringing of hands, and trying on of other dresses. Sadly, no decision was made. This weekend will involve more dress shopping, and hopefully a final decision.

Being a bride is hard.

So I'm holding off on making any purchases until a decision has been made. Mom has promised to keep me in the loop with as many pictures as she can get her hands on. The pattern search may begin anew after I see the dress, but that's OK. It's a wedding, and perfection is required.

In other news, I have been a busy, busy girl. Very little knitting has gone on for the last week or two. There is a four-day-weekend that starts in about 11 hours though, so there should be plenty of time to actually accomplish something I can post about.

I also got my Ravelry invite (I am yarnmule, of course)! Sadly, there hasn't been much time to play with that yet. I poked around enough to know that I will love. This. Site. That is, when I get time to play with it. Sadly, my four day weekend also involves a place with no internet access, so that too will wait until next week.

Did you ever notice that the end of summer tends to be the busiest time of the year?

By George...

2007-08-27T19:30:00.000-04:00

I think I've got it!

I searched the interwebs far and wide, and just couldn't come up with the perfect stole pattern. Everything out there seemed to have too many diagonal lines, and I was looking for something a little softer and curvier. I found a lot of triangular shawls that I loved, but having never knit a larger lace project, I didn't feel much like trying to convert a pattern.

So I went to my LYS, and I think I found it. What do you think? That link should bring you to the correct pattern, but if it doesn't it's the Estonian Garden Stole. I love the lily of the valley border, and the heart shaped main pattern. I would still prefer a less pointy edging, but frankly, I will probably never find anything better.

I picked out yarn too. Somehow I stumbled across this review, and I knew I had to have it. Wouldn't you know, a different LYS carries it, and has white in stock. I'm going on a little shopping spree after work on Wednesday. I do believe I'll need some bamboo needles in the appropriate size as well; using my aluminum circulars just seems like a tragedy waiting to happen.

I'm going to try to wait until this weekend to cast on. I know this is going to take a good deal of focus, especially at the beginning, and I'd like to be able to dedicate some solid hours to it at the beginning. But can I wait that long? Will the lure of cashmere & silk and lace (oh my!) break me? Quite possibly.

Wedding Stoles?

2007-08-22T23:21:00.000-04:00

There's some extra joy for my family lately. My baby brother (who is most definitely not a baby) is getting married! We are almost as in love with his bride-to-be as he is; she's a wonderful woman, and they treat each other very well.

All this love deserves something special, so I've decided to make her a stole to wear over her wedding dress. They're getting married next September in Minnesota, so there is a distinct possibility that it will be cold outside. The weather doesn't mess around up there.

I'm looking for some inspiration. I have never knit a stole or a shawl, so I'm not too familiar with the patterns that are out there. Since I'm not quite on Ravelry yet (724 people to go!) I'm having trouble finding the perfect thing.

There are a very few requirements:

1) She wants a rectangular stole, not a triangular shawl.

2) I want this to be the most amazing thing anybody has ever laid eyes on. I have over a year to work on it, so time and effort should not be an issue.

3) It should be fairly large; her dress is strapless, so I do want it to be big enough that it will actually keep her arms warm if necessary.

So if anyone knows of beautiful stole patterns, please leave me a comment. There's a freezing cold bride out there that needs your help!

The Long Wait

2007-08-20T06:40:00.000-04:00

Only 998 people ahead of me in line for Ravelry (yes, I jumped onto that boat pretty late). I'm thinking less than two weeks.

Insert Final Jeopardy theme song here.

Oh Duh

2007-08-16T20:06:00.000-04:00

I've decided that the term "mindless knitting" should be abolished from my vocabulary. A stitch pattern might be mindless, and the thought required to actually accomplish said stitch pattern might be mindless, but the knitting itself? I need to stop being mindless about it.

Oh, do you sense an example coming on?

The last time we visited the latest pair of socks, they were about a dozen rows plus ribbing away from being completed. Those dozen rows were mindlessly knit, then the ribbing was mindlessly knit, then the bind-off was mindlessly accomplished. I gave the sock to BBMM so he could try it on. When next I glanced at him, he had THAT LOOK on his face. You know the look; it's the one that says "there's something wrong and I really really really don't want to be the one to tell you about it". I looked at his foot. The sock was on his foot. Not on his leg though, just on his foot. Stuck at the heel.

Lesson 1: When you notice that your stitch pattern doesn't stretch quite as much as a regular ribbing, you should pause and consider that instead of, you know, mindlessly knitting.

Lesson 2: When you are knitting a second pair of socks for the same person, using the same technique and the same yarn, you should really look back at what you did the first time.

Lesson 3: When every pair of socks you have knit in the last century needs to be ripped back to the heel because the leg is too tight, you really ought to have people try on their socks just after the heel. You should not wait until you have mindlessly knit 100 rounds and a bind-off.

Lesson 4: I don't learn my lessons very quickly.

So yes, I picked out the bind-off, I frogged, I tinked, and I ended up at the heel. I took out the size 1 needles. Here we go again; only 98 rows to go.

Yawn

2007-08-13T20:00:00.000-04:00

I've realized that I am working on the most boring knitting ever. Just ribbing, ribbing, ribbing, all the time.

First up, the redo of the Lunch bag Sweater. I may have to change the name if it keeps going this well.

I've only got about 8 inches done; not quite enough to try on. Nonetheless, this one won't be a paper bag. The circumference is about 4 inches less than my bust when it's not stretched. It should be about perfect.

Next, BBMM's sock. Yep, it's still the first one. But it's nearly done; about 12 rows plus the ribbing left.

I really like the stitch pattern; Slipped Stitch Rib from (of course) Sensational Knitted Socks. It looks very much like a regular 3x3 rib, but with a little more dimension; the slipped knit stitches are a little "puffier" than the rest of the pattern. It also seems to be a little stretchier and sproingier than a regular rib. I like the contrast more than I thought I would too. It's a plain enough pattern that it needs a little interest, and the contrast color gives it.

Stitch & Pitch

2007-08-09T20:24:00.000-04:00

You may have read that NYC transit had some, er, issues yesterday***. Some rain that came too quickly and something about high tide, and there were basically no trains for most of the day. It was also about 95 degrees, with humidity. It's was like Grover's Bad, Awful Day, only we weren't Muppets.

But despite the lack of transit and the heat and the chaos of the day, Stitch & Pitch went on. Knitters persevere, don't they? And once we finally got there, everybody had a fun time.

Knitters doing what they do best:

Checking out the booty from the gift bags:

A bunch of people from my Wednesday night knitting group were there, although I didn't get pictures of all of them. Here's Elaine, my knitting guru, at the finish line of her Feather & Fan scarf:

She's, um, not so blurry in person. And Heidi, working on something lovely and lacy:

Lily Chin was there, wearing an outfit she apparently whipped up this weekend (!):

She also had a glove and baseball, which went over quite well with the little boys sitting behind me.

I worked on the latest BBMM sock a bit, but frankly, the wool didn't feel so nice in the heat. Mostly I watched a really good baseball game; the Mets won in exciting last-minute fashion.

This morning, I saw that we even got a write-up in the Times; you can see a much better picture of Lily, complete with accessories there.

This is the first year Stitch & pitch came to Shea; I'm already looking forward to next year.

***It shames me to link to the Post, it really does, but it's a pretty good overview.

More Fun Than Knitting?!

2007-08-06T19:21:00.000-04:00

I did do some knitting this weekend, but not a tremendous amount. I've turned the heel on the first sock for BBMM; not particularly exciting or picture-worthy. I also re-started the Lunch Bag Sweater. I reduced by 16 stitches, removing a set of ribs (no, not THAT way) on either side of the center front and center back cables. I also took out 4 stitches just because I converted to the round instead of flat. I also realized that I knit much, much looser in ribbing than I do in stockinette, so I went down two needle sizes, from a 6 to a 4. I'm only about 8 rounds in, so it's not big enough to gauge size yet. We shall see...

Yep, that's all the knitting I did this weekend. One heel and 8 rounds of a sweater. It's unusual, I know, but I do have a very good reason.

Very difficult to knit in the back of a speeding boat. And too much fun to even try.

Coming up later this week, Stitch & Pitch! It's Wednesday night at Shea Stadium, and I'll be there. If anybody lets me post pictures of them I will. If not, gratuitous player butt shots!

Bad Blogger

2007-08-02T20:55:00.000-04:00

Is this thing on? Tap tap tap. Oh, hi.

It's been a while, hasn't it? Life appears to have gotten in the way of blogging. A couple of business trips and a long weekend conspired to keep me away for a while. Of course, that doesn't mean I haven't been knitting...

First up, another pair of socks for BBMM, making pretty fair progress.

Slip stitch rib from Sensational Knitted Socks, done in my usual toe-up short row everything manner. They look a little wierd laying flat, partly because the ribbing is super stretchy. I had two skeins of Patons Kroy in a colorway called Glencheck. BBMM liked the yarn, but we all know what happened last time I tried to make him socks with two skeins of this yarn. So I'm using the leftover from those socks for the toe, heel and cuff. That should buy me enough yardage to give him some decent length. Because men just don't love the ankle socks, know what I mean?

Next, the beginnings of the Bob Dobbs, from Domiknitrix, also for BBMM.

That's one skein of Patons Classic Wool so far. It got me about 6" in length. This moves very, very quickly when there's a movie to watch and mindless knitting is required. I haven't touched it for a while though. Worsted weight wool and 90 degree weather just don't mix in my book. But we tried it on, and it fits perfectly, so when I do get back to it at least I'm guaranteed some measure of success (knock on wood).

Moving along, hey, did I feel an itch?

This is what's left of the Lunch Bag Sweater. I unraveled it a week or so ago, then spent some time avoiding it like the plague. But I think it might be time to pick it back up. There will be some maths first, because I will not be doing this thrice. I suppose the math didn't help me last time, but I wasn't exactly precise about it either. Apparently the "oh it's close enough" approach is not really close enough. This time around, there will be a calculator and some stubbornness.

Quill Lace

2007-07-26T07:05:00.000-04:00

Look at that; two finished pairs in one week!

Again, a few more pictures here.

Incidentally, sorry if those of you with blog readers had some issues this morning. For some reason, every time I tried to insert a picture this entry would magically post. Not sure why, but the extra editing might have caused multiple entries. Blogger is fun!

Pattern: Quill Lace by Judith Brodnicki, again from Knitty. This is a really nice, simple stitch pattern. The end result looks more difficult than it is (impress your friends!). It's cuff down with a heel flap; I haven't done this in ages. I forgot how easy it is! The fit is also pretty incredible. I was so worried about running out of yarn that I did a short cuff; only 4" before I started the heel flap. In retrospect, I could have added at least one, maybe two inches. But these are a lighter weight, summery sock, so the shorter length is OK by me.

Yarn and Needles: Tofutsies, 50% superwash wool, 25% Soysilk, 22.5% cotton, 2.5% chitin. One ball of color 737, Footsteps, with plenty left over. I added reinforcement (Wooly Nylon) to the toe and heel. The yarn is much thinner than most sock yarns, so I knit on size 00 aluminum DPN's. I actually started on 000's, which I preferred on the stockinette portions. I just couldn't work the pattern stitch at that gauge though, so I went up one needle size. It took me a long time to warm up to this yarn, I think just because it's so different. It really doesn't feel wooly at all, and I never would have guessed it's half wool. It's light like cotton, and the Soysilk really does give it a very smooth feel. There's also some strange combinations of pooling and striping going on. When I first noticed it I though it would really, really bother me, but it doesn't. I'm not sure if that's because the pattern stitch draws your eye away from it, or because the color is so subtle it doesn't pop out at me. Either way, now that I'm done, I love it. It looks like a yarn that will split a lot, but it doesn't, even after repeated, endless frogging and reknitting. It's very, very easy to work with once you get used to the smaller gauge. I'm not a big fan of their bright pastel colorways, but they seem to be adding some darker colors for fall, so I imagine I will pick some up. Highly, highly recommended for summer socks.

Mods: My gauge was tighter than the pattern called for, so I cast on 84 stitches instead of the 60 called for by the pattern. This barely fits; I have to tug a little to get it over my heel. I like socks tight though, and the pattern really looks best when it's stretched out. I also added one row of K1, P1 ribbing a the top in an effort to make the top edge stop curling. It helped a bit, but it does still curl somewhat when laid flat. On the foot though, it's fine, and I probably needn't have bothered.

If I Could Do It Over: I don't think I would change anything. I don't even think I would have added length to the cuff. These were a fantastic commuting project, since the pattern is so easily memorized, and they were very soothing knitting.

Funny KIP Story: When I was first starting this, I pulled it out of my bag on the subway. I woman sitting near me gave me a look of complete and utter horror. I smiled, and she asked, very cautiously "What are you making?". I said socks. She practically collapsed in relief, and said, "Oh I was so worried that was a sleeve, and you were going to make a whole sweater out of that thin yarn!" Heh. That could kill the strongest soul.

Baudelaire

2007-07-22T23:01:00.000-04:00

I never mentioned that I made friends with Baudelaire again. I re-started them last weekend, and finished them today. The second sock went smoothly, thank you very much.

There are a couple more pictures here.

Pattern: Baudelaire, by Cookie A., from Knitty. My gauge was tighter than called for in the pattern, so I knit the largest size to compensate. After figuring it out the hard way, I used the alternate instructions for the larger instep. It's really a fantastic pattern. The stitch pattern is beautiful, the instructions are very clear, and the toe-up heel flap is a little something different.

Yarn and Needles: Patons Kroy Socks, 75% washable wool, 25% nylon. I've got ball bands for several different colors floating around, so I don't know which belongs to this yarn. We'll call it a dark heathered oatmeal. I used four size 0 bamboo DPN's.

Mods: I ended the foot halfway through the pattern repeat, but wanted to start the leg pattern at the beginning of the repeat. I added a few extra rows of pattern on the front, stockinette on the back after the heel turn.

It seemed like the cables were twisting toward the front of the foot on the pattern (this may have been me misreading) so I flipped them around to face the back.

Instead of doing 1x1 ribbing, I used an uneven ribbing that followed the pattern of the sock. This ended up being 2x2 for most of the sock, with some 1x1 around the cable.

I also made a weird mod right before the ribbing. The cables up the sides were 8 stitches wide, and I wanted to slim that down for the ribbing. I slipped the first 4 stitches of each cable to an extra needle and held them as if I were going to knit a cable. Instead, I knit together a stitch from the front needle and a stitch from the back needle. This decreased to 4 stitches for the ribbing. It still fits over the heel, and it keeps the ribbing nice and tight.

If I could do it over: The heel flap is written as plain stockinette, and I think I would prefer a slip-stitch heel for strength. But I love how these look, and they were really fun to knit. I would still love a pair in red, as pictured in the pattern. Of course, I have a pattern queue a mile long, so who knows if I'll ever get to it.

Take Two

2007-07-20T09:06:00.000-04:00

Well, I got two votes on the poll, and both said rip and re-do. That's where I was leaning anyway, so the unpicking of the seams and unraveling will begin soon. Or maybe not so soon. We'll see how long it takes to get my strength up.

In the meantime, I picked up a little something to make myself feel better about the whole debacle. My MIL got me a lovely gift for my birthday; a gift certificate to my favorite LYS. Could there be any better gift? Could there be any better MIL? Of course, I spent the whole thing on sock yarn.

This might look familiar; it's the same color Regia Silk I used for the baby cardigan. I had one 50 gm skein left, so why not buy another and make some socks out of it? It's almost like spending money to save money. Or not, but that's what I'm telling myself. This yarn is so soft once it's washed; I can't wait to feel it on my feet!

Next up, some Louet Gems, in color Neptune, a beautiful denim-friendly light blue. This is a new yarn for me, and one I'm pretty excited about. I generally prefer sock yarn with nylon in it, but then I touched this. Delightfully squishy. It's got a nice tight twist, so I think it will be perfect for something cabled, or with a lot of stitch definition. I know Cookie A uses it for her solid socks, and there's no better recommendation than that. (If you don't know who Cookie is, click the link immediately. You will never see a better collection of sock patterns than that.)

This is my favorite of the bunch. Fleece Artist, a yarn I've heard raves about. They don't put color names or numbers on their ballbands (no two skeins are exactly alike) but I think this is their semi-solid Ivory. It's got lovely subtle beiges and greys along with the ivory and is a bit lighter and less yellow than the picture shows. I've got plans for this one; a sock pattern I've been working on for a long time that's been waiting for the right yarn to come along. I fully expected to buy some Lorna's Laces, but this colorway grabbed me at the store and wouldn't let me go.

I also managed to buy something that wasn't yarn; tickets to Stitch 'n Pitch! August 8th, Shea Stadium, Mets vs. Braves (which is always a good game). The seats are way up in the air, but hey, I'll be knitting! What an incredibly fun way to spend an evening.

Lunch Bag Anyone?

2007-07-16T19:41:00.000-04:00

This is one of those times when I remind myself I like the knitting, not the sweaters.

If you recall, I thought the sleeveless sweater was maybe not so great. I thought maybe a wash would help. I am sometimes blind to the simplest math. Like this equation here: Linen + washing = soft & drapey. Not smaller. Softer. Drapier. Therefore bigger. I will admit that the hand is much nicer, but the sweater is not even close to fitting. First, click the link above and see how this is supposed to fit. Nice and snug. Know that I knit the smallest size, got gauge, and am a normal sized girl. Now, if you need a laugh, look at the pictures below. It's not pretty, people.

Yes, I took the pictures myself in a mirror. Art shots were not required here. Pretty awful, no? I look approximately 3 sizes bigger than I really am. The waist shaping appears nonexistent. The side seams are bulky and awful.

So yeah, I have a few choices here.

1. Shove it somewhere really inconvenient and forget it ever existed.

Pros: No more agony!

Cons: Admitting defeat is not a strong suit of mine.

2. Frog it and reknit it with smaller needles. I think I could also take out about 16 stitches, which would translate to about 4 inches.

Pros: This thing could be really, really cute if done correctly. I could knit in the round this time. I could lower the neckline. Also, the yarn is now softer, so it might be easier to work with.

Cons: Umm, reknitting an entire freaking sweater? And the yarn might be a splitty mess after the washing.

3. Frog it and use the yarn for something else entirely.

Pros: The sweet joy of destroying an object that offends me.

Cons: I have nothing else in the queue for this yarn, so it would go back in the stash. And again, the yarn could be splitty mess, as mentioned above.

4. Give it away to a woman who works with me. We will call her ample-bosomed, because I don't think I can say she has huge boobs on a blog. Oh wait, just did. Ha!

Pros: People might think I'm nice.

Cons: People will know better, and wonder why I'm giving away my unwanted crap.

5. Burn it. The whole freaking thing, pattern and all.

Pros: Again with the sweet release.

Cons: I'm pretty sure there are burning ordinances in the city. And burning yarn seems so very, very wrong.

6. I don't think there's a six, but there might be. If there is, tell me about it!

Please vote in the comments. I am very near making a decision which I think I might regret mightily. You will either reinforce it and eliminate the dread, or talk me out of it.

Progress Report

2007-07-12T20:16:00.000-04:00

Just an update today, but I'll have some pictures for you next week.

Baudelaire and I still aren't speaking. I'll take her along with me this weekend, but no guarantees that she'll make it out of the knitting bag.

I took the second Quill Lace sock to knitting night with me yesterday, and made some progress. It's ready for it's heel turn, Mr. DeMille! I'll be working on that tonight.

The sleeveless sweater. Sigh. It's finished. The knitting is done, the seaming is done, the ends are woven. It is unwearable. It's bulky, the neckline is too high, and it's a little too loose. I'm hoping a wash and a block will fix it; it's mostly linen, so a good dunk may be just what it needs. If not, it will get thrown into a drawer, never to be seen again. Either way, you will see pictures of it next week; I won't get around to washing it until the weekend.

During my break from Baudelaire, I've cast on for the Bob Dobbs Sweater from Domiknitrix. This is going to be a "break" project. It's stockinette in the round, so it's not the most stimulating thing to work on. I'll use it for movie watching, or those times when complicated socks are wearing me down. Like now. Two hundred stitches worth of 1x1 rib feels strangely soothing. I also discovered a new (for me) cast-on. It's a simple tubular cast-on, perfect for 1x1 rib. I've worked the one that requires a provisional cast-on, a few rows of stockinette, then knitting the back needle to the front. It's lovely, but slow and annoying. This one starts with your working yarn, and involves a lot of quick hand twisting and grabbing yarn with your needle. It was a little hard to understand at first, but once I figured it out it was quick and easy. It is almost as clean looking as the provisional tubular cast-on, but in 1/4 the time!

The Christmas project is also progressing. I spent a soothing evening sorting colors, and figuring out how much I had of everything. I cast on the second ornament last night, this time in stripes! This will be temporary subway knitting, until I get the heel turned on the Quill Lace.

I tend to be pretty faithful to one home project and one travel project, but since I got back I've been flitting around from thing to thing. As such, I don't know what I'll end up working on this weekend; maybe lots of things.

So That's What Lifelines Are For

2007-07-10T20:42:00.000-04:00

Baudelaire and I had a really nice vacation. We spent a lot of quality time together, and got along famously.

You may notice that there's a lifeline where the leg starts. Funny story about that...

The pattern has a separate set of directions for a large instep. I didn't think I needed to use them, but I decided to put a lifeline in anyway. I started knitting the leg with the regular directions. Then I sort of forgot about the lifeline, and why it was there. I got to what I thought might be the end of the leg, and thought I better try it on and decide if I needed another repeat.

Yes, that's right, I knit the entire leg before I tried it on. I don't know why. I do know (now) that I have a large instep.

Baudelaire and I are going to be taking a little break from each other for a while. Tonight, I'm casting on something new.

The Christmas Project

2007-07-09T06:40:00.000-04:00

Over the last few years, I've gotten a lot of oddballs of yarn from various family members. Some of it is probably well over 20 years old, but it's almost always in perfect shape. Somewhere along the way I got these.

It appears to be 2 skeins of variegated yarn, with matching solids. It's also a very thin fingering weight, unplied, in the scratchiest wool imaginable. I couldn't figure out what to do with it. I would never want it against my skin, so socks & mittens were out. Maybe something felted, but what?

One day while staring at it, I decided to wind them into balls. I unfurled a variegated skein, and found this.

See those little tags? It wasn't a variegated skein at all. Many, many short runs of color. In fact, each of the loops is two different colors, tied together at the ends. They're around 12 to 15 yards long each.

I have to assume it's some sort of sampler, but if any of you have any idea, let me know. I am flummoxed.

All these short lengths of yarn got me thinking about tiny things. And since I'm always thinking about knitting socks anyway, it ended up with tiny Christmas stocking ornaments.

I used a full length of both the red and white for this one. I want to do some in stripes, which I think will take 2 of the main color and one of the contrast. I've taken out the Christmassy colors.

(There is a lot. I've started putting colors together. If I only use each color once for a main color, and once for contrast, I can do about twelve. If I use all that I have, and just don't make the exact same sock twice, it will be in the dozens. If I do twelve, I'll give them as stocking stuffers (heh) this Christmas. If I do dozens, I can hang a bunch of them on my tree too. Hmmm...

Knitting Mania

2007-07-02T19:41:00.000-04:00

I was gripped this weekend; I wanted to knit everything, and all at once.

The first Tofutsies sock was nearly finished when I got home from work Friday. I couldn't just let it languish all weekend, so I finished it and cast on for the second.

This started a sock frenzy. I was getting antsy about the Baudelaire, so...

I told you I wouldn't be able to leave it alone. I worked two repeats of the chart, and made the other toe. That's on waste yarn; we wouldn't want to draw the attention of airport security with metal objects. So far I'm loving the pattern, but I managed to put it down.

That wasn't quite enough sock knitting, so I started on Christmas.

Tiny Christmas stocking ornament, shown with a (very shiny) quarter for scale. I finished this in an afternoon, then picked out a million other colors of yarn (more on that later) so I can work on one at a moments notice. No two will be alike, but I imagine they will all be this cute.

I also felt a strong urge to buy more sock yarn. To stop myself, I organized my sock stash. I paired up all the sock yarns I have with patterns I'll make them from.

Then I swatched a couple stitch patterns for BBMM's next pair of socks. I settled on Slip Stitch Rib, from Sensational Knitted Socks again. These will be my next pair of subway socks, so they'll have to wait a bit. Always be prepared, I say.

Finally the urge to finish the sweater hit me. It hit me hard; I may have bruises.

OK, no bruises, but my shoulders are a little achy.

Travel Time

2007-06-29T12:02:00.000-04:00

I'm taking a little trip to see some family next week. I am flying. We all know what this means; hours in an airport (knitting time), hours on a plane (more knitting time), rinse and repeat. Of course, the moment I booked my flight I started thinking about which project I should take with me.

The sweater? Not really travel material; straight needles are so long, and the space will be tight. And it's kind of boring; better for TV knitting than focus knitting.

The Tofutsies socks? Socks are a lovely travel companion, and these are already subway knitting, so it all makes perfect sense, doesn't it? Plus the yarn is not very wooly, and considering my destination is a desert, not a bad idea. Quill Lace is a perfect subway project; easy to memorize, easy to whip in and out of the bag at a moment's notice, highly portable. But the boring factor strikes again. During the hours and hours of travel, I fear it would put me to sleep. Also, I'm almost done with the first one, which means I'd only be bringing along one sock. The thought of finishing it, and being without knitting for even a moment, terrifies me. (Yes, I know I won't finish a whole sock on one round-trip flight, but that's not the point.)

So I was really left with only one solution. I fought it, I did (not really) but it had to be done.

It's just a toe, but when it grows up it will be a Baudelaire. Finally, after months of thinking about it, I am making them. Such a perfect project for an airplane; small and portable, interesting stitch pattern that requires a bit of focus. And it's so nice to be knitting toe up again. I finished my toe, and then I got to try it on. And it didn't quite fit, so I went up a size. No ripping out and re-casting on, oh no. Just another increase row, and voila. Oh, toe up, how I've missed you. My only problem will be letting that toe sit there un-knit upon until I leave for my trip. See, this is why the sweater may never be finished; too many socks to knit.

I also considered making Eunny Jang's Bayerische Socks; I'm up for a challenge after so much simple knitting. They're absolutely beautiful, and I have a solid yarn that will work well. It took me close to two days to decide, and you know what sealed it? They're cuff down. Don't get me wrong, I'll make them eventually, but two pairs of cuff down in a row might have killed me. Am I such a sock snob? Does everyone else have such strong preferences?

Knitting Mojo

2007-06-24T17:17:00.000-04:00

It's back. I had crazy busy weekend full of family and cooking and chatting and eating, and somehow when it was all over, I had a lot to show for it. This morning I did some short-rowing and some binding off, and ended up with the back of a sweater.

I'll be casting on the front tonight. If I can stop neglecting it for days at a time, it shouldn't take terribly long to finish. It is summer though, and there are long weekends and plane trips in my near future. I am giving myself a pessimistic deadline of the end of July. Maybe I will surprise myself.

The Tofutsies sock and I have also made friends. I stopped fussing, and it stopped protesting, and we are getting along fine now.

I still don't like working cuff down. I still don't particularly like the look of a heel flap. But oh, the fit. Oh. Yes. The perfect little cup around the heel, the super-cushy flap; it all feels so very very nice. It's also so easy to work. I still prefer my short row heels and toes, but I'm feeling a little bit of love for this method now. I also have an urge to try a toe-up gusset and heel flap. Baudelaire, anyone?

Slow Progress

2007-06-18T21:09:00.000-04:00

There's been one more incident of sock ripping since last time. This was a simple mistake knitting the stitch pattern. It happened less than an inch into it, but a didn't discover it until over an inch after that. I really, really didn't want to do it again. So I tried it out on a non-knitter; I showed BBMM one side of the sock, then the other, and asked if he noticed a difference. "You mean that big gnarled thing right in the middle there?" Sigh. I tried tinking back, but it was way too tedious. So one more do-over, and I managed to perfect my cast-on while I was at it. I have now officially knit to the point where I usually rip.

Keep your fingers crossed; the next day or so would appear to be crucial. Maybe it's all the practice, but it's actually knitting really quickly; I only started this version yesterday. Here's a little detail shot, in the closest of all close-ups.

Part of the reason for the quick progress is the complete and total ease of memorizing the pattern. It's a 6 stitch, 2 row repeat. The second row of the repeat is just knit around. I think I had it down by row 10 or so (the first time I knit it). So I can work on it not only on the train, but standing around waiting for the train.

A little more progress on the current sweater, as well. Not much; this is the at-home project, and there hasn't been much time at home lately. But nonetheless:

Past the armholes; I've only got about 5 inches left, then a little short row shaping for the shoulders. The front is the same until the neck split, so that should go quickly. Trust me when I say that this looks much better when stretched out slightly. It will never have hanger appeal, but I think it's going to look great on. I'm hoping for August.

Socks, Again and Again

2007-06-15T07:21:00.000-04:00

The only knitting project I took with me on vacation was a new sock. I had finally found a use for the Tofutsies I bought a few months ago; Quill Lace from Knitty. I had a hard time finding a good pattern for this yarn; it's very thin, and I was getting about 12 stitches per inch in stockinette. Anything looser than that felt too loose for socks. This was only a 6 stitch repeat, so it was easy to get the right circumference.

As you know, I am not a big fan of cuff down socks, but I absolutely loved the lace pattern after swatching it, and it just didn't look right upside down. So I swatched, I loved, but I decided I was not a big fan of the zig zag ruffly top. I swatched some ribbing, decided that a 2x1 rib with 2 purls and one twisted knit stitch was perfect. That's where it all got a little too cute.

I tend to have a problem with cast-ons being too tight. I know that a tubular cast-on is quite stretchy, and I absolutely love the clean look of it. Also, you can thread elastic right through it, which I thought would be great for the Tofutsies, with all the cotton content it has. But of course, a tubular cast-on looks best with a 1x1 rib. I thought (the thinking is where it all tends to go awry) that I could make it work with my 2x1 rib. Normally you cast on 1/2 the total stitches + 1, knit a few rows, then K1, pick up 1 in purl. I thought that I could cast on 2/3 the total stitches + 1, knit a row, K2tog all the way around, then K1, pick up 2 in purl.

This is what I did on the way to Martha's Vineyard. The whole way. And I didn't finish. Remember the whole 12 st/inch thing? Yeah. It was hard. And slow. So that's what I was doing the morning I got busted knitting on vacation; finishing my cast-on. I finished, knit a row in my ribbing, ripped out the provisional cast-on. And it didn't stretch. Really, not at all. So I ripped it. And I laughed at myself a little bit, and decided I would try again with a knit cast-on. Also pretty stretchy, and way, way easier. And when I laughed, BBMM looked at me (his look seemed to imply that he married a madwoman) and said "You are such a perfectionist; how come ripping stuff out never bothers you."

Well that's a stumper, isn't it? My off-the-cuff (tee hee) answer was "Because it can always be reknit." But I've been thinking about it ever since. Is it because knitting is all about the process, not the product? I don't think so. I do love the process, or I wouldn't do it, but I also love finished objects. In fact, I don't have a single UFO that's not being actively worked on. If I don't like something, I rip it out and put it away; nothing sitting on the needles untouched here. I think it goes back to the OCD and perfectionism, actually. I put time into this, and time is the thing most at a premium in my life. I want it to be perfect. And yes, anything that's not quite right can be ripped out and re-done. Perfectly, of course.

So back to the sock; I ripped it gleefully, and started again on the way home. I got this far by Wednesday.

Just long enough to be tried on, so I did. And while the body of the sock fits perfectly, I couldn't get the cast-on over my heel. I stretched, I squirmed, and I couldn't make it happen. I took it to my Wednesday knitting night and asked Elaine whether she thought I could pick out the cast-on an then do a sewn bind-off. (Elaine, incidentally, is my knitting guru. She is sadly blogless, but she is a great knitter, and she must know every technique there is.) Her reply was that of course I COULD, but what a pain in the ass; it would be easier to rip it out and start over. Heh. Well, I fussed, and I stared at it. And suddenly I didn't like the ribbing so much anymore. It made a weird ridge where the pattern started. And maybe the wavy top wouldn't be so bad... So I ripped again. And this time, not only did I not mind it, it thrilled me. It felt liberating.

So the reknitting has begun. I'm only 8 rows in, so not enough for a picture. But we're looking good, and the wavy cuff isn't bothering me. It's not as frilly & girly as I expected. I think this time we will have a winner. And if we don't, well, we all know what will happen.

PS: Miss Violet, from Lime & Violet, left a comment on this post. I feel like a freaking rock star.

A Knitting Free Vacation (Almost)

2007-06-12T20:57:00.000-04:00

When we left for vacation, I was warned that there would be no knitting once we were at our destination. I got to knit in the car, of course, but more on that later.

So they are not knitting related, but wanna see some pretty pictures of Martha's Vineyard?

Gingerbread houses in Oak Bluffs, my favorite town. It's almost otherwordly. The houses look pretty much the same, except for the insane use of color. It made we want to knit in brightly colored things. I promise you though, that I will not knit a sweater with gingerbread houses on it. And I assume I will return to my regularly scheduled neutrals soon.

A view of the Chappy Ferry, taken from the dock in Edgartown. The ferries are fun and all, but why don't they just build a bridge? It seriously take less than a minute to get across...

Chappaquiddick is pretty amazing; virtually deserted, and water everywhere. Of course, it's got a bit of tragedy too...

Dike Bridge, site of the accident that killed Mary Jo Kopechne.

The clay cliffs at Aquinnah, complete with lighthouse. There are very limited tours to the lighthouse, so this is as close as we got.

And for the final coup de grace, we got the best spot on the ferry on the way home.

One morning, I woke up really, really early. While BBMM was in the shower, I thought I could cheat a little. I got busted.

Next time, you'll get to see what I was working on!

Devan and Friends

2007-06-05T22:37:00.000-04:00

The whole set is finally done! I finished knitting the hat Friday night, but started working on something else and forgot about it until last night. A few ends to weave in, and it's ready for gifting.

Specs for the whole set below, but first, here's the hat:

And a close-up:

If you haven't already seen them, better shots of the other pieces are here and here.

Pattern: The cardigan is Devan, from Knitty. It's a very easy pattern, entirely stockinette with simple shaping and roll hems. It would be a good pattern for a beginning knitter who's ready to move beyond scarves. The size also makes it knit up very quickly. I used the smallest size; 0-6 months.
The socks are my favorite toe-up basic pattern, but smaller. I used the same rolled hem as the cardigan instead of ribbing at the top. And of course, contrast solid for the toe, heel, and cuff.
For the hat, I was obviously inspired by the Umbilical Cord Hat, but I didn't use a pattern. I just started with I-cord, then increased on the way down.

Yarn and Needles: The jacquard yarn is Regia Silk Colors, 55% merino, 25% nylon, 20% silk. Color 0184 (where's the fun in that?). I used almost exactly two skeins for the set. It is very soft and smooth. It almost glides off the needles, which can be a good or a bad thing, I suppose. It's also spun rightly, so it's not prone to snagging either.
The solid is Opal Sock, 75% wool, 25% nylon, color 1419. It's really just basic sock yarn, maybe a little softer than some. I had a 100 gm skein, and I didn't appear to make a dent. Any 50 gram skein should be plenty.
I used many, many needle sizes. The cardigan was knit on size 3 aluminum straight needles, with the hems on size 2. The looser gauge made the Regia feel extra soft, but it looks like it might pill. The Opal seems, frankly, like it's knit too loosely. The hat was knit on size 2 bamboo DPN's, hems on size 1. Very soft and drapey; great for baby clothes. Too loose for socks though, so those were done on size 0. It doesn't drape as well at this gauge, but somehow the pattern looks better, and the color pops a little more.

If I Could Do It Over: I would pay a bit more attention to my gauge swatches. I tested a lot of different needle sizes for this, but only in the Opal. I switched from a patterned Opal to the Regia after I made the gauge swatches, and i didn't think to check gauge on the new yarn. I should have; the silk makes the Regia a completely different animal. Had a seen how the Regia knit on a 2, I would have adjusted the cardigan pattern for that gauge. I also forgot that babies don't need durable socks (what with the not walking and growing out of things immediately). I should have done those on a 1.
I think I also would have made the hat a little smaller, and a little longer. It seems a little out of proportion to the rest of the set. I might also use 6 increases per round instead of 8; I don't think I like the pumpkin-head look.
Overall though, I'm sure the new mother will be thrilled.

Oh, I am going on vacation, so no post until next week. I have also pledged to keep the knitting under control, so there will not be much progress to report when I get back. I am still trying to decide whether to mention that Saturday is World Wide Knit in Public Day...

I Slipped

2007-06-03T23:06:00.000-04:00

About a year ago, I got a set of light-up knitting needles. I used them to make a baby blanket, and when I finished, I lost one of them. I noticed it was missing sometime during the winter. Yesterday, I found it.

I think I dropped it in the snow, and the plow got it.

Not that it matters, but I never found the tip...

I found something else though. It caught my eye and I had to pick it up.

Mountain Colors Bearfoot, Yellowstone colorway. That's pretty close to the real color.; it's maybe a little darker in person. BBMM and I spent an extra hour in the car today so I could get sock yarn (he is a patient man) and I'm glad we did. It's really, really soft. It's tightly spun, so stitches are going to show up beautifully. You know how when you first get off a diet, food tastes really, really good? Works for yarn too.

OCD Can Be A Good Thing

2007-05-29T20:29:00.000-04:00

If you read this often (occasionally? once or twice?) you know that I usually go away for the weekend, to our little place upstate. Every week, I pack up knitting on Thursday night; this generally takes about an hour (I spend 5 minutes after work on Friday packing clothes & toiletries; that is how wrong I am). I usually pack three projects, more if I'm nearly done with something. I pull everything out of the travel bag and make sure I have every possible needle, notion, chart and book I could possibly need. I know that I'm only gone for 48 hours, I do. But you never know what will happen, and I can't even fathom a 4 hour return trip without knitting. The horror!

I have never been so glad in my life. This weekend I brought the BBMM sock, which was nearly done. I brought the baby hat, even though I really wanted to save it for subway knitting. I brought the super-secret sock project, which I fully expected to be my main project all weekend. And, just in case, I threw in the pattern & yarn for the next sweater I'll be making.

BBMM socks: finished before we even hit the interstate. Super-secret socks: Started on the way up. Pattern working. Toe; a little pointy, but lovely. A few repeats onto the foot: seriously too big. Gah. So unraveling she went, and I spent most of the weekend on the "you're never going to need this but bring it anyway" project.

Clearly, I enjoyed knitting this. I'm using a cotton/linen blend from my stash, on size 6 needles. I'm through two skeins already, despite the fact that I didn't start until Saturday. A close-up of the stitch pattern:

There's nothing incredibly difficult about this, but there's something interesting to do every right side row (decreases, YO's) so it remains engaging. I'm about halfway through the back, and since it's sleeveless, that means I'm a quarter of the way done!

I did knit about half a round on the baby hat, but it is officially subway knitting now. It's stockinette, in the round, on size 2 needles. If I had to work on it for a couple hours straight I might literally to die of boredom. So, 30 minutes here, 30 minutes there, and I will be done. Eventually. I may actually bring it to knitting group tomorrow night, as it would be perfect for not-paying-attention and too-much-coffee-can't-control-my-fingers. Good times...

Sleight Of Hand

2007-05-24T20:21:00.000-04:00

I have no interesting pictures for you. I truly feel like the slowest knitter in the world lately,but it's really just life kicking me in the butt. Some extra hours at work, lack of a seat on the train, and all of a sudden several hours of knitting have disappeared this week.

Of course, like the rest of the world, I will be spending the long weekend stuck in traffic trying to get someplace lovely. It means I won't be posting again until at least Tuesday, but it also means lots of knitting time.

In the meantime, I'm going to distract you by talking about knitting podcasts. They are my new favorite thing in the world. Even when I can't knit, I can listen to people talking about knitting, while drowning out the sounds of the subway. Ah, modern technology can be a beautiful thing... so here are some of my favorites, in alphabetical order, because that's how they show up on i-tunes.

1. Cast On, by Brenda Dayne: This is probably one of the most popular knitting podcasts out there. She gives a lot of knitting news, as well as some fabulous interviews, which always include the "deserted island" question. She'll keep you up to date on new podcasts, knitting websites, and the like. If you only have time to listen to one podcast, this would probably be the one. She's also got the most calm, soothing voice in the world; perfect for an irritating commute!

2. It's A Purl Man, by Guido: A male knitter from Boston. He did a podcast just before Mother's Day that featured his mom, and it was seriously cute. He also does some on-location podcasting, and quite a few interviews; one recently with some sheep farmers!

3. KnitPicks podcast, by Kelley Petkun: Brought to you by KnitPicks, the online knitting store. This is a new podcast; they only have 4 episodes so far. This is more informational than entertaining. The most recent podcast was all about the knitty gritty of wool (God, I love puns); cuticles and crimp and the whole deal. It makes me want to take notes.

4. Lime & Violet, by, uhhhh, Lime & Violet: Maybe the funniest knitting podcast ever. Lots and lots of yarn pron, and occasionally snort-laughing. And they love to knit socks. Fair warning though; this is NOT a clean podcast. Ever.

5. Stash & Burn, by Nicole & Jenny: I believe this is a pretty new one as well. It is, of course, full of tips about burning through your stash.

6. Sticks & String, by David Reidy: A podcast by an Australian bloke who knits. A really nice podcast that tends to cover a lot of ground; he does a lot of reviews & interviews, and a lot of "roving" podcasts. He's been to quite a few festivals lately, and usually does an interview while he's at one. I find this supremely interesting because of the differences in what he can get versus what I can. For example, it took him months of searching to be able to get KnitPicks needles (the horror!). Plus you get to listen to the cool Aussie dialect.

Alright, now go listen to some podcasts and pretend that I've given you something interesting here. I promise I will reward you with pictures next week. Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

Cuteness Achieved

2007-05-22T19:32:00.000-04:00

The final ends were woven in last night...

And it's cute. I'd like you to notice that the stripes match on both fronts. Sleeves too; I actually knit those at the same time with 2 skeins of yarn to make sure of it. Hey, when you're knitting plain stockinette stitch, you need to give yourself SOME sort of challenge, right?

A close-up, you say?

Please ignore that button. You know, the one that doesn't match. The light is not so good in my living room at night, and I didn't notice until I took the picture, but it is a different button. That will have to be fixed before I give it away.

Do notice the cute rolled hems; I don't know why I love them so much, but I always have. It probably has something to do with working with the nature of the fabric. It's going to roll anyway, why not made it cute and contrasting. The color is pretty bad in these pictures, but trust me when I tell you that the solid matches the blue in the jacquard perfectly.

A little detail of the back:

The little patch is another favorite of mine. It's all in the details...

I'm going to wait to post the specs until I finish the socks and hat too. They were all knit from the same skeins, so it's hard for me to give details on that sort of thing until I finish. Which I will. Eventually. The socks just need the ends woven in, and the hat is in progress.

In other news, BBMM's socks are being reworked successfully. The first sock is finished, and is now officially perfect. I added 1-1/2" to the length. If you recall, I had originally worked the foot on size 0 needles, then went up to size 1 for the leg. This time I did the cuff in size 0 as well. They seemed like they might be slipping before, and this did the trick. Everybody loves a grip-top sock, you know (go to #370). I just have a couple rows plus the ribbing left on sock 2, so we are close.

Soon, I get to start work on something new. Planning is seriously in progress.

Christmas In May

2007-05-17T20:32:00.000-04:00

I don't want a baby. I have never, in fact, wanted babies. However, looking at this...

I'm telling you, maternal urges are busting out all over. I'm assuming it's temporary.

It has given me a great idea though. BBMM and I have recently started hosting Christmas for both of our families, at our cabin upstate. (Christmas + cabin in the woods + lots of snow = wintry perfection.) Last year I gave everyone what was quite possibly the ugliest excuse for a hand-made Christmas ornament ever. I bought a bunch of plain Christmas balls and a glitter pen, and drew a sketch of the cabin, and added the date. Not so pretty, but a nice commemoration of the week-long event. I decided that I should give out little token ornaments every year, and that they should not suck so much as last years. So this year; tiny Christmas stockings. Just think; I can knit a whole bunch of tiny little socks while remaining baby-free! AND I can use up some stash yarn.

Of course, I already have about a half dozen projects lined up (and those are just the ones I told you about). But these knit fast, so I think I can just grab one when I don't have any other subway knitting ready. See, it's like I'm not even starting a new project! I'm just thinking about a new project. And possibly casing on some toes tonight. Must... Resist... More... Socks...

Sock Specs

2007-05-15T20:17:00.000-04:00

Of course, I gave you photos of the finished socks, then told you nothing about them. Not too clever...

Pattern: An amalgamation, really. I used the Seed Stitch Rib stitch pattern from the Globetrotter socks, by Jodie Danenberg. However, I didn't follow the actual pattern; I used my regular toe-up short-row everything construction method from Sensational Knitted Socks. I only had two skeins of the yarn, and wanted to maximize, hence the toe up. As it turned out, I needed the third skein anyway.

The Seed Stitch Rib is a great stitch pattern for socks; a little more interesting than garter rib, and with a little more stretch to boot. The top ribbing is 1-1/2" of a regular 3x2 rib. After much trial and tribulation, I ended up with 80 stitches cast on, for a nice tight fit on a size 11 men's foot.

Yarn and needles: Patons Kroy Socks, 75% washable wool, 25% nylon. Color Gentry Grey (54042), assorted dye lots. Once I rip out and add some length, I suspect I'll be at almost exactly 2-1/2 skeins. It is not the softest yarn in the world, but I'm fairly sure it will soften up after I wash it; the gauge swatch did. Also notice the HUGE nylon content; they should wear like iron, and will probably last as close to forever as possible. This yarn is quite heavy for a sock yarn; a normal person would probably use size 1 or 2 needles, but I knit loosely, and almost always need to size down. I also like the foot of my socks to be knit as tightly as humanly possible. I did the foot on size 0 needles, and the leg on size 1. On my second go-around, I will probably do the top ribbing on a size 0 as well. As they are now, the ribbing is not much tighter than the stitch pattern, and I worry BBMM will forever be tugging up his socks. These are his first pair of hand-made socks, and I'd like them to be perfect. They will, after all, be my size template for all future socks for him.

If I could do it over: Well, I'd buy 3 skeins of yarn to start with. Other than that, I'm pretty happy, as is he. I still need to rip down and add length, but I honestly think he would be OK even if I didn't. I don't think I'll ever make him socks again exclusively as a commuting project though; they just took too long. Part of the fun of sock knitting is the quickness with which they can be finished, and I dragged this out too long.

A little shout-out to Herrschners at the end here (and no, I NEVER though I would utter those words). I bought the original two skeins from them, and when I ran out I called them to see if they would match dye lots. They said no. I tried another number; they said no too. However, both of the customer service reps I spoke to said I could send them a swatch of the yarn, and they would try to match it up for me. It seemed odd to me that they would do this, when they wouldn't match dye lots, but I did it anyway. I sent them a fairly large swatch of yarn, an original ball band, and a groveling letter. About a week later I hadn't heard anything, so I called. They said a new skein had been sent the day before. I got it fairly quickly, and it matched PERFECTLY. I was a little worried, and the first sock I knit every other row with the old and new yarn for about 8 rows. Invisible. On the second sock I took a flyer and just started knitting with the new stuff. Still completely invisible. I never actually checked to see if they happened to send the same dye lot, but either way they did a fantastic job color-matching.

Except...

2007-05-14T07:01:00.000-04:00

Friday's marathon of airport waiting was indeed productive. Witness completed socks!

(I'll have you know that BBMM took this picture himself. I'm THAT bad a photographer.) The second sock was bound off by the time my return flight took off. Except... they're a little short. Somehow my leg measurement plus ribbing turned into my leg measurement including ribbing. I'll have to rip out the sewn bind-off (which ought to be fun) and the ribbing and add some length. That can wait until a little closer to wool sock weather though, so I'm counting them as FO's. A little bit of stitch detail for you; please don't mind the overexposure.

I also started the baby socks on the plane; they just became my subway knitting for the week. The Devan cardigan is washed and blocked, and finishing began last night. I am attempting to finish these before I start something new, so I should make heavy progress this week.

I only received one vote on my "what's next" post. Mary, who is a regular at Wednesday night knitting group, voted for the sleeveless cable sweater. Mary, this swatch is for you:

Decisions, Decisions

2007-05-10T20:05:00.000-04:00

In a sudden development, I found out yesterday that I am taking a business trip tomorrow. It's one of those quickie trips where I'll be spending more time in the air than at the destination. Of course, to most people, this would be a drag. For a knitter, it means a couple hours in the airport, a couple hours on a plane, and then do it all over again!

So as I'm considering which projects to bring with me, I'm also realizing that some of the longer projects will be done soon. I started the ribbing on the first BBMM sock today, and the second only has about 30 rows left to go. They will be done soon (especially if I bring them with tomorrow). I started the first baby sock last night, and the toe took me just over an hour. If I decide to bring those with tomorrow, I can probably finish them, or come close. I will probably bring both sock sets, but I still have a desperate fear of being stuck in an airport with no knitting. Could anything be more tragic?

As far as the "what to knit next" question, I'm having great trouble deciding. And yes, this is where you come in! I won't be so fancy as to put up a poll, but please throw some opinions into the comments. Options:

1. Baudelaire socks, by Cookie A., from Knitty. If you recall, I've been dreaming about them since before I started the BBMM socks, but now that the moment is here I'm not sure about it. I think it's because I really want to knit them in red, as her sample, and I have only neutral yarn. I would wear the red about once in a lifetime, but they are hot hot hot! I'm sure they would be beautiful in the oatmeal heather I've got though.

2. I'm working on a sock pattern of my own. I've had a great many logistical issues; I think I've started about 4 times, and always ripped out after, at most, one pattern repeat (Part of the problem was the attempted use of The Ugly. God, it's ugly). I have been swatching madly, and I think I've finally found the answer. This would be secret knitting, as I might submit it to Knitty. The deadline for the fall issue of Knitty is June 15th; I doubt if I could work it out, knit a pair, and have someone test knit another pair before then. I would probably submit for the Winter issue instead, so plenty of time for that. Obviously no link to this one, but I already have a name picked out, so it must be inspiring!

3. This sleeveless cabled sweater that I would knit in a linen/cotton blend from my stash. This pattern has been chasing after me for a long time, but I wanted to save it for spring. Now that spring is here, meh. It does have all the things I love in a knit though; small gauge, interesting construction, and cables. Mmmmmmm, cables...

4. I want some knee socks. I think it would be these (because I appear to have an urge to knit socks exclusively by Cookie A. I am fairly certain I'm not the only one). I know, it seems stupid to knit knee socks just in time for summer, but there you have it. My knitting urges clearly do not fall into any logical order. I thought for a while that I wanted to knit argyle knee socks, until I realized there was no way to get around putting in a seam. In my mind, half the fun of socks is the magical lack of seams.

5. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with The Ugly. It hit me last night in a flash; Jaywalkers. I've never knit them before, and since the rest of the blogosphere has, why not play along? It's a simple enough pattern that I think The Ugly might actually work well. If it doesn't I'll have a bonfire with it or something.

6. I found this the other night. Very cute. Not sure if it's me. I might need to ruminate on this one before I decide if it's a go.

So there you have it, six options to choose from. Hopefully by the time I post later this weekend, with your help, I'll have a decision. And as long as the TSA guys decide I look harmless despite the pointy sticks, I should have a nice FO to show off as your reward.

The Not-Socks Revealed

2007-05-08T20:02:00.000-04:00

Well, finally, you're saying. For a variety of reasons (laziness, distraction) this has taken me much longer than I expected. However, the moment has come; finished pieces! The fronts:

The back:

Closeup of the patch on the back:

And the sleeves:

Here's a closeup of the adorable rolled hems, which are both on the bottom hem and the sleeve hems:

This is the Devan pattern, from Knitty. It's very, very cute. It's also quick because it's small, and easy because it's just stockinette. If this were adult sized I would go mad with boredom, but there's something so thrilling about seeing these tiny pieces come together so quickly. I started the back on Sunday morning, and finished it Monday night. I don't particularly like being around babies, but I sure do love making them clothes!

I should wait to sew my seams until I've blocked the finished pieces. We'll see; now that I'm done knitting it is very tempting to actually finish the thing. All that's left is the seaming, and a little blue button band. I think I've decided to add snaps instead of buttons though; buttons seem so fiddly on an infant, squirmy as they are.

I think I will distract myself from seaming by working on matching socks. Blue toes, heels, and rolled cuff, jacquard foot and leg. If I have time, I'll make a hat as well. I'm thinking about the umbilical cord hat (resized for the sock yarn, of course) but I also kind of crave earflaps; we'll see what I end up with.

I Am Slow Like Molasses

2007-05-03T20:15:00.000-04:00

It's awful, and I'm sorry, but I still have no pretty pictures for you. I'm making a bit of progress, but not enough to really show. The not-socks are moving along, and I will probably be able to show you something next week (yes, you've heard it all before, I know). I've been able to spend some time on the BBMM socks; I turned the heel on sock 2 last night, AND my new, hopefully matching skein of yarn is in the mail.

In order to give you something of substance, I thought I would finally post my notes/pattern for my DPN case. I don't have progress shots, but I'll give you some close-ups along the way to guide you. At some point I will probably create a word document, and post it in the sidebar. So, if anyone has suggestions about how to clarify this, please comment! I had a very difficult time explaining it all without progress shots; if you think this won't work without them, let me know. I could always make another one of these and take pictures as I go.

THE GREAT STASH-BUSTING DPN CASE

Materials needed:
-Fabric: about 1/2 yard, depending on the width.
-Lining, if desired: less than 1/2 yard. I used denim, so I did not line mine; the lining will show only on the inside.
-Packaged binding: I used 1/2" double fold binding, 3 yards per package, 2 packages. You could also make your own binding from the same fabric you use for the case or lining.
-1/8" ribbon or cord elastic: I only used about 6", so use whatever you have in your stash!
-Wider ribbon: about 1-1/2 yards. I used 1/2" wide, but anything up to 1-1/4" would work. Make sure you can write on it.
-Buttons: 2, any size.
-Tailor's chalk. If you don't have some, get it! It is inexpensive and available at any craft store that carries sewing supplies. I will warn you now; if you don't get some you will be sewing many straight lines, very close to each other, without a guideline. You will laugh, you will cry, and someone may get hurt.
-A fine-tipped permanent marker, in a color that will show when writing on your ribbon.
-Sewing machine & thread.

Directions:
-Cut one 15"x15" square of fabric, making sure to follow the grain. If your fabric is off-grain, the cross grain is more important than the vertical grain, so follow that.

-Cut another piece of fabric 15"x6". The cross-grain should follow the long edge.

-Cut a piece of the wider ribbon 15" long.

-If you are lining your case, cut a square of lining fabric 15"x15", and baste to your main fabric along the edges (wrong sides together), making sure the 2 pieces are flat and even when basted together. This will function as 1 piece of fabric from this point forward.

-Bind one of the long edges of the 15x6 piece of fabric. This will become the top of the inner pocket.

-Mark the smaller piece of fabric for buttons. Marks should be 4" in from each short edge, and 2-3/4" up from the non-bound long edge. The 4" mark is very important!

-This is the point at which I sewed on my buttons, but I would only recommend doing them now if you have small buttons, stiff fabric, and are very confident about your machine sewing skills. Otherwise, chances are good that you will run over a button, breaking a needle, and possibly hurting both your sewing machine and your eyeball! If you don't think you can catch just one layer of fabric once the case is sewn together (tiny pockets and all) sew the buttons on now.

-Place the smaller piece of fabric on top of the larger piece, wrong sides together. The bottom (unbound) long edge of the smaller piece should line up with the bottom of the larger piece.

-Baste the bottom edge of the pieces together.

-Place your 15" length of ribbon along the smaller piece of fabric, with the top edge of the ribbon about 1-1/2" down from the bound edge. This placement is not terribly important; it needs to be between the binding and the buttons, and not on top of either. Other than that it is up to you; do what looks right with your ribbon. Just make sure the ribbon is straight and smooth.

-Baste the sides of the smaller and larger piece together, catching the ribbon in your baste stitch. Again, make sure the ribbon is laying flat. Here's a refresher on the layout:

-Now comes the fun/hard part; making all the little pockets for the DPN's to slide in to. I'm going to give you measurements from the left side; mark them both near the binding and at the bottom edge. This is where the tailor's chalk becomes important; you draw straight lines and follow them with the machine. If you didn't get tailor's chalk, you will have to make tiny marks and eyeball the lines. Don't say I didn't warn you! From the left edge, mark the following distances:

1-1/4"
2"
2-3/4"
3-1/2"
4-1/4"
5-1/4"
6-1/4"
7-1/4"
8-1/4"
9-1/2"
10-3/4"
12"
13-1/4"

-You may want to pin the ribbon at each of these markings, to make sure it stays straight as you're sewing it. Again, this will depend on your machine sewing skills.

-Sew in a straight line from the top of the binding down to the bottom of the case at each of these marks. if you've already sewn on your buttons, you will need to use a zipper foot to sew the lines on either side of the buttons. you may also have to swerve a bit; this should be OK as long as it's not drastic. And a close-up of how the pockets are sewn:

-Please note that my pockets are NOT perfectly straight, nor is my ribbon. I didn't pin the ribbon, and you can see why I recommend doing so.

-Now for something simpler; we are going to make a single stitch-line to indicate the fold line. This is nothing more than decorative, and a guide, so you can skip this step if you like. If you using a lining, this line will help keep the 2 fabrics from bubbling away from each other. On either side of the case, mark a line 6" down from the top. Using your tailor's chalk, draw the line connecting the marks. Make sure it is straight and even, then sew a line on top of the marking, straight across end to end. Viola!

-Next we are going to baste the ribbon onto the case. That way we can encase the raw edges in the binding. Let's start with the little button loops, made from either you thin ribbon or cord elastic. You will need to cut them long enough to comfortably fit around your button, plus seam allowance. This measurement will be less crucial if you're using elastic. If you're using ribbon, cut them a smidge too long; the buttons will hold if the loops are a little big, but if they're too small you are out of luck! In my case, my binding was 1/2" wide, so my ribbon was cut with 1" extra; seam allowance on either side. Mark the spot for the loops at the very top of the case, 4" in from either side, on the wrong/lining side of the fabric. Pin your ribbon in a loop facing down, so the edge of your ribbon matches with the raw top edge of the case. Close the case and make sure the loops line up with your buttons. Once you are sure it's correct, baste them on. This picture shows mine completed, so the loops are facing up, but at this stage yours will be facing down.

-Next is the larger ribbon for closing the case. I cut each piece of ribbon about 15" long, but if you're using scrap cut it in half; anything longer than 12" will be fine. Cut one edge of each ribbon at a diagonal to keep it from fraying. Now flip your case over so the right side of the fabric is showing, with the top edge still at the top. Mark about 1-1/2" down from the top of the case on both sides. Pin your ribbon below that mark. Again, the raw straight edges of your ribbon will line up with the raw edge of the fabric, and the ribbon will be facing in toward the center of the case. This picture shows mine closed, after the binding is on, but it should give you an idea.

-Close the case and make sure the ribbon lines up so it will close securely. Once you've checked, baste on the ribbon.

-Only one more step; the final binding. This is basically pin and go, but there are a couple crucial spots that you'll want to check up on as you sew. The first rule is to make sure the basted on ribbon does not get caught in your stitch line; I pinned mine to the middle of the case just to make sure.

-Start the binding right at the pocket binding, on the left as you're looking at it. This is pretty inconspicuous when the case is closed.

-Sew from this point all the to the bottom edge of the case. When you get to the very end, back up a little more than the width of the binding (my binding was 1/2", so I backed up about 5/8"). You will then be able to manipulate the binding around the corner, creating a little diagonal flap; a mitered corner!

-Sew one or two stitches, so the needle is back on the binding, then turn and zip along the bottom edge. Miter your next corner, then pause to pin.

-Going up the side of the case, you will need to make sure the binding and ribbon are positioned correctly. Pin the binding onto the case all the way up the side, making sure your ribbon is still facing inward, and not caught on anything. Then you will fold the ribbon back over the pinned binding. This way, when you make the stitch that attaches the binding, you will also be sewing over the ribbon. Stitch up the side, miter the next corner, and pause to pin the top.

-Again, you will be pinning on the binding, then folding the loops up to catch them in your seam. In order to keep these straight, I had to use one pin for each side of the loop. Pin it, sew it, miter the corner, then pin the binding and ribbon going down the other side. You'll also want to cut and position the end of your binding before you sew the last edge. Cut the binding about 1/2" too long, then fold the ends under, making sure all the raw edges are tucked away. Sew it, then secure the stitches at the end of the binding.

-One more step, and it's an easy one. Write your needle sizes on the ribbon on each pocket. The numbers you write should fit the size needles you own; I started at 0000 (I know, they don't even make them that small) because I have a lot of small sizes for socks. you can start larger if you want; the last pocket should fit up to about a size 11.

-The case closes with the buttons facing out; you will see all your little stitch-lines on the pockets, and the buttons are more or less centered on each side of the case. Fill the case, close it up, and pause to admire your handiwork!

Lies And A Story

2007-05-01T09:37:00.000-04:00

In my last post, I said something about having a lot of knitting time this weekend. I may have promised pictures. Ummm, not so much. I think I only worked about 2 rows on the not-socks, and the secret project got ripped out last night. I am telling you, The Ugly simply does not want to cooperate with anything I use it for.

So, in an attempt to appease you, I'll tell you a charming knitting story!

Last week I was riding the subway to work. The train was pretty empty for rush hour. I didn't get a seat, but I had a pole all to myself, so I hooked my arm around it and started knitting (I can knit standing on a moving train, but not without a little support). I'm knitting away, listening to the iPod, happy as a little clam, when someone taps me on the shoulder. I look up, and a young man is motioning me toward his seat. I blinked in disbelief and yanked out the headphones. He motioned again, and said "Would you like to sit?" I don't know if you have ever been to NY and ridden the subways, but this was a shocking development. People will frequently give up a seat to the elderly, or the disabled, or to anyone who looks like they need to sit. But this young man gave me his seat to a perfectly healthy young woman who was knitting. I thanked him profusely and took the seat.

I spend the rest of the ride thinking about him. Was his mother a knitter? His wife? Was he himself a knitter? Surely he must know someone obsessed enough to knit standing up on a moving train! Maybe someone had knit him socks before, and he knew the power of the handmade sock. Or maybe, just maybe, he was just a wonderful human being who woke up that morning and decided to be generous.

No matter how or why it happened, for that one day my faith in humanity was completely restored.

Slow Thursday

2007-04-26T21:19:00.000-04:00

I have so very, very little to report. The BBMM sock 2 is moving along, but how many pictures do you really want to see of the foot of a boring sock? That's what I thought. The not-socks are progressing, but I don't want to reveal that until I have something recognizable to show, and I'm just not there yet. I've also been working on another top-secret project, but it's really just chunks of yarn and scribbles at the moment, and duh, it's top secret!

So I thought I'd show you my stash. To me, this is shocking; when I took it all out to take the picture I nearly died. I know to some of you this is laughably small, but I would like you to keep in mind that I have been knitting for less than 4 years, and I didn't get crazy about it for a year or so. Also, this stash does not include any sock yarn. It also doesn't include about a dozen balls of Bernat Satin that I bought for an ill-conceived and barely started baby gift. I keep that in a separate place, so I didn't think to include them in the photo.

That's a whole lotta wool, yes? Here's the thing; until last year I didn't have a stash. That's not exactly true, but what I had I was able to keep in a shopping bag. One shopping bag. Then there were these two sales...

The first was the Suss closing sale, accounting for the pile on the left. Suss had two stores; an LA and a NY, and they closed the NY store last year. Everything was either 75% off (for Suss yarns) or 50% off (for everything else). It was a strange experience for me; I went one night after work and tried to hold back, but still purchased a giant shopping bag full of yarn; mostly Suss cotton, a nubby worsted weight. I bought a sweater's worth of a beautiful deep red, and scattered skeins of brown, beige and teal, thinking I would do a striped cabled V neck or something. I also bought the Araucania Nature cotton that I used for the Nature Cable cardigan. The next day I decided it would be silly to not stock up at these prices, so I went back. The place was pretty picked clean, and I had a total panic attack, snatching up things I will probably never use. I bought a couple random skeins of lace weight mohair, which I still can't find a purpose for. Some black Suss Alpaca, which I used for a hat and gloves for myself. Two skeins of Suss Alpaca Tweed, one of which I used for fingerless gloves. Six CONES of a lightweight thick & thin cotton; I can't even fathom what I would ever use it for.

The second was Smiley's once-a-year Manhattan yarn sale. It's held in a hotel ballroom, and yarn is available only by the bag; most bags are 10 skeins, so usually enough for a sweater. This is the pile of bags in the middle of the picture. It was there that a bought the Filatura Lanarota Summer Soft that I used for The Slink. Also from there; a bag of charcoal gray alpaca which I love, but it's small yardage, so maybe not enough for a sweater. A bag of a beige linen blend, which I'll use for a summer project residing in my head. A bag of black Bernat Lana; 100% merino in gigantic skeins, I'll get the Bob Dobbs from Domknitrix for BBMM, as well as a sweater (a hoodie maybe?) for myself out of it. Two bags of a tweedy wool in the most beautiful deep red, and an ocean blue (no plans for these yet).

The pile on the right is the rest of the stash. In defense, this is almost entirely either leftovers from other projects, or yarn that was somehow free. This pile doesn't hurt me so much, although I have GOT to find a purpose for the 8 hanks of leftover Cascade 220.

So like the rest of the knitting world, I put myself on the January yarn diet. You might say to yourself "Self, yarnmule sure seems to buy a lot of yarn for someone on a yarn diet". You would be totally right about that, but every diet has built in cheats, rights? Mine were easy:

1. Sock yarn is OK. In January I owned enough sock yarn for one pair, which I had already started. It became clear that I was not going to wait another year to knit more socks, so I gave myself that. Sock yarn has recently become not so OK though; the flash-buy of the Tofutsies, The Ugly, which I now have 800 yards of, plus the remaining Kroy; 2 pairs worth. I've got to be done with that for a while as well. I think two more pairs after the BBMM socks, then I can get more.

2. Gift yarn. Meaning yarn to knit gifts with, not yarn to give myself as a gift. That would be wrong. Yummy, but wrong.

3. If I start a project, I can buy yarn to finish.

So far, it's the end of April, and I have followed the rules. It's been hard though, and not even because I like shopping. I feel like it's stifling the creativity. I can't just find project, love it, buy the yarn for it and go. Nope, it's find a project, dig through the stash, see if I can get gauge, and if not find something else to knit.

Because of this, I'm changing the rules. My birthday is in July; if I can make it until then, I can buy yarn for one project. Also, if I make it through half the stash before the end of the year, diet is over, limits are lifted, dream projects will be created. That second part seems highly unlikely, especially with the current sock obsession, but you never know.

I really enjoy making up my own rules as I go along. I may try it in other areas of my life.

Incidentally, I am going away for the weekend, and will have many, many hours of car time. If all goes according to plan, I will be far enough along to reveal the not-socks by next week. Until then, have a lovely weekend!

That's Better

2007-04-23T19:22:00.000-04:00

I officially ran out of yarn for BBMM's first sock on Friday, so I decided to cast on for the not-socks. I spent about 10 minutes knitting with The Ugly, and decided it just wouldn't do. A quick trip to my favorite LYS, and I came home with the perfect thing.

The blue in the jacquard portion matches perfectly with the solid that I already have. It's also more appropriate for the thing I'm making, and it's softer than what I had before. This is Regia Silk print sock yarn. I spent one afternoon knitting with it, and I am now dreaming of a wardrobe of silk-blend socks.

That's not a picture of a gauge swatch, by the way. It's a real live piece of knitting, finished and waiting on a holder. Once I have something recognizable I'll spill the beans about what I'm working on, but not quite yet. Perhaps the size of it can be your third clue...

Spring Has Sprung

2007-04-21T12:36:00.000-04:00

The Slink is ready to wear at the perfect time of year.

It looks like spring, doesn't it? I like this sweater. A lot. All of the things I couldn't figure out about it made perfect sense once I put it on. There are detail shots in the Gallery; BBMM gets credit for the photography.

Pattern: The Slink, from Domiknitrix. I followed the pattern exactly, using the smallest size and the shorter length. Just yummy, yummy stuff. It was great simple knitting, while not as boring as plain stockinette. So many of the pattern details are just brilliant. The ribbing pulls in the waist with no shaping or short rows. The cute cap sleeves are knit directly onto the armholes with short rows and decreases, and they are shaped perfectly.

The yarn I used is very different than what is called for in the pattern, but both my stitch and row gauge matched perfectly, so I didn't need to adjust for that at all.

The body of this is very simple; the ribbing is a 6 row repeat, and the only shaping is for the armholes and neck. It was quick, simple, delightful movie-watching knitting. I finished, Kitchenered the side seam, and did the sleeves. For some reason, I could not comprehend how they were going to work. Between the picking up, short rows, decreases, working only the top half of the sleeve, and working side-to-side, I was just baffled. The directions weren't really difficult, it just isn't the "standard" way of doing things. It took until halfway through the first sleeve before I realized what was going on. Then, of course, it all seemed brilliant.

The hems are simple, but not standard. Again, easy to work with a detailed result.

Oh, and I was right about the pattern errata; she e-mailed back this weekend with the change. I fixed it differently than what she recommended, but it still worked fine. And she's sending me a tee for finding it!

Yarn & needles: Filatura Lanarota Summer Soft, 60% rayon 40% acrylic, color #221, 6 skeins. This is from my stash; I had a bag of 10. If I had to name the color, it would be Stormy Sky. The yarn was very easy to knit; there are many extremely thin plies, so I did snag a ply pretty frequently, but they pulled back in with ease. One strange thing about the yarn; it is completely different after it's washed. I knit a gauge swatch with a few different size needles, washed it, and settled on a size 6. While knitting on this size needle, the fabric felt really stiff, thick, and unyielding, almost like cardboard. After it's washed, it completely relaxes; it's still firmly knit, but it's soft and drapey, and almost feels like a lighter weight.

If I could do it over: I don't think I would change a thing. I generally would never knit the same garment twice, but I think I would with this one. The engineering is so intriguing to me that I'd love to see what would happen in a completely different yarn; I could see myself doing another one in the glittery yarn the author recommends.

Sock Madness

2007-04-19T07:15:00.000-04:00

I've been working exclusively on the BBMM socks this week, and I have made some progress.

I'm about an inch beyond the heel turn on Sock 1, and a few inches past the toe on Sock 2. Sock 2 is now subway knitting, while Sock 1 watches TV with me in the evenings. Sock 2 is happy with this arrangement; he is new to the world, and eager to get out and explore. Sock 1, however, is perhaps tired of his captivity, and is protesting. Despite my care (and my many, many lifelines) he simply does not want to be finished. Witness this temper tantrum:

Yes, I know, I shouldn't blame the sock. It's really my own fault for not thinking about the mass quantities of yarn needed for a size 11 man's sock. Sigh. I'm not quite sure what to do about it; I ordered the yarn from Herrschner's, and they won't even attempt to match dye lots. I can send them a swatch of the yarn, and they will look for something close, but how long do you suppose that will take? Does anyone know of a yarn store in NYC, Jersey, or anywhere near here that carries a good selection of Paton's Kroy? If I don't find another skein soon, I'll have to stop working on Sock 1, and who knows what it will do to me then!

On the Slink front, it is dry as of Wednesday, and ready for its closeup. Sadly, BBMM hasn't been around to take glamour shots, and there has also been a distinct lack of sunlight. Saturday is looking sunny and bright, so look for another post this weekend!

Poor Little Camera

2007-04-16T19:25:00.000-04:00

I actually do have progress to report, just nothing to show. I finished the Slink on Sunday, and it's blocking. With the torrential downpour we had yesterday, and continuing rain today, it is taking a looooong time to dry. Hopefully I'll have some glamour shots tomorrow or Wednesday. I did write to Domiknitrix about the possible errata, but have not heard back yet, other than a clarification about the size I was knitting.

The finishing on that sweater was beastly, surprising after how easily it knit. I ended up hauling out reference books to clarify directions on short rows and Kitchener. I will give a gigantic shout-out to the Sensational Knitted Socks book while I'm at it. This book has the absolute best instructions for finishing details I have ever read. It may be just the way my brain works, but Charlene Schurch's Kitchener description makes it so easy for me. And her little details about picking up short-row wraps create a perfect finished product.

Speaking of socks, I am on a mission to jump-start BBMM's Globetrotter socks, since I have a bit of between-project time. After a quick try-on tonight, I'm ready for the heel of the first one. I've also started the toe of the second; it's short-row madness around here. I don't know why I think I can knit two socks at once, but apparently I do.

Oh, I do have one photo for you, but it isn't pretty...

This is my gauge swatch for the not-socks (no, I am NOT telling!). Am I wrong, or is it completely hideous? I am hoping that it will be better when it's got more width to narrow the stripes, and when it's paired with the solid. I am not optimistic.

The Postman Rang, But Only Once

2007-04-12T20:47:00.000-04:00

Presents in the mail!

1275 meters of fingering weight goodness. Anybody want to guess what it's for? Uh, no, not socks. That would be a bit too easy, don't you think? Two hints: it will be a gift, and the color is a clue (I am not allowed to knit myself anything with turquoise in it for a while. I will admit that I have a limited color palette in my wardrobe, but enough on the turquoise).

Whatever it is, I won't be getting started for a while. It doesn't need to be ready until late July, and shouldn't take too long to do. I want to finish the Slink before I start on this one.

I have hit a snag on the Slink, by the way. I tried to take a picture, but it's dark and rainy out, so you know. If you recall, the waistline is done in a purl ribbing, like this:

Notice that each rib has two purl rows. Mmm hmmm. The center front of the sweater has a section that is straight stockinette, then the purl ribs resume again. I got the center front done, did a few rows on the ribbing, and realized that my first rib has only one purl row. What's up with that? I'm fairly certain that it is the pattern and not me, but how on earth could nobody have noticed this?

It's going to be a fairly easy fix; tink the ribbing (I only did about 4 rows before I noticed), plus one extra row, then add the first purl row in at the beginning of the repeat. Still, I'm irked. The back of this thing seemed like pure genius, but this is the second thing on the front that I don't like. I'm going to e-mail the author in case I am just an idiot, or am reading the pattern wrong. I won't be waiting for a response to fix it, but I am interested in what she has to say. Hopefully she won't be telling me that I am functionally illiterate.

Slinking Right Along

2007-04-09T07:38:00.000-04:00

OK, I admit that to the casual observer it may look like a blue blob. But if you are a knitter, and you look closely, it may magically begin to look like a sweater! Most of that is the back (now complete). The bunched up bits are the beginnings of a front.

By the end of this evening, I should be halfway through the front. I have discovered the one thing I don't love about this pattern though. See that jog at the side seam? Where the waist ribbing suddenly drops by ten stitches? (Come on, click the picture; you know you want to.) Why did she do that? Why not step it down gradually, so it's less of a cliff? I thought about working it that way, but it would have involved re-calculating the last fifteen or so rows at the end, and I wasn't sure if the shaping would work around the bust. So I left it. I did notice that they are very careful not to show the side seams in the book. Harumph.

Oh, I did change one thing about the way I was knitting this. Notice the stitches all bunched up on a straight needle? The annoying click-clack of the metal circular was driving BBMM nuts. I suddenly remembered I had these.

These were a gift from BBMM two Christmas' ago, yet this is the first time I've used them (not because I didn't want to, I just went on a circular binge for a while there). They're pretty wonderful; incredibly sharp, sculpted tips, perfect for the splitty yarn I'm using. Nice and smooth polish, but with the little bit of grip that makes me love wood & bamboo needles. Plus, aren't they purty? BBMM doesn't much like the knitting, but he's good enough to enable it anyway. It is one of many reasons that he will be able to request handmade items at will, for as long as we both shall live.

We Interrupt This Sweater...

2007-04-07T16:36:00.000-04:00

Sometimes, you take a break from one craft with another.

I hate sewing, I really do. But I've been meaning to go pick up smaller sizes of the Prym DPN's, and I realized that they are not size-marked in any way. I thought that trying to differentiate between size 0, 00, and 000 by eye was not going to be fun or easy, so I decided to make a case; store the needles by size, and get rid of some clutter in the process. I used some denim, binding, ribbon and buttons I had laying around, and voila!

I took the easy way out and just wrote sizes on the ribbon. I did make sure the pen was waterproof, but somehow I'm guessing this may not be the most long-lasting solution.

It's pretty cute though, and effective, and it took me all of three hours. Most importantly, I am now free to acquire more sock-knitting equipment!

This was merely a brief break in the knitting. I am making heavy progress on The Slink, and should be able to show off something meaningful by the end of the weekend.

EDIT: If anyone is interested in the (easy) pattern for this, let me know in comments. If there's enough interest I'll write it up and post it.

Truly Madly Deeply

2007-04-03T07:01:00.000-04:00

This one is going to be a winner. I know, one should not judge when one is a mere 6 inches into the knitting, but lemme tell you something; the force is strong with this one. She is speaking to me. She is literally flying off the needles. I can't even believe how quickly it's going; I started on Saturday, ripped and restarted on Sunday afternoon* , and lookie where she is!

OK, so maybe it doesn't seem quite so impressive to the casual viewer, but I do have a job, you know.

The pattern is The Slink from Domiknitrix and oh, what a joy to knit. It's a brilliant pattern; she tries to avoid seams as much as I do; I would rather Kitchener until my hand falls off than do mattress stitch. So the beginning side seam is cast on provisionally, and will later be grafted to the other side seam. All the shaping on the body is done with stitch pattern, which pulls in the waist, and frankly saves this from being a stockinette boredom beast. It's a 6 row repeat of nothing but straight knit and purl, so it's perfect for a night of say, watching the Mets kick butt in the season opener.

The only thing that's bothering me is this; it seems oddly familiar. You know, knit side to side. A nice turquoise/aqua color. Hmmm. I fear I may be falling into a funk. A hand-knit, side to side, turquoise funk. Next sweater, I'm going back to the neutrals that I so love...

*There's this thing I apparently like to do called "pretending I am not a short person". It involves starting a sweater long, because I don't want it to show my stomach. Then, hopefully quickly, I'll hold it up and realize that my belly and my knees are pretty far apart, and there's a lot of middle ground, and yes, I really could afford to get rid of that extra 6 inches or so. In the case of the Nature Cable sweater, let's just say that the "roll hem" is very, very bulky. In this case, I called a mulligan.

No More Seams

2007-04-01T12:54:00.000-04:00

The Nature Cable sweater is complete! It's certainly not my favorite FO ever, but it's not too bad. The armholes are a little wonky; I made the sweater a smidge tighter than I should have, so the batwing sleeve just causes a bulge. I think once the sweater grows (and it's cotton, so it will) it will be better. All the "waist shaping" was done during blocking, the body is really just a box. The best part, of course, is the cabling.

The cuff was added on after; I ran a bit short on the sleeve, so I made cuffs that matched the neckline. Another thing that's just slightly wonky.

Pattern: A freebie from elann.com, with drastic modifications, mostly because of my yarn choice. I couldn't match both stitch and row gauge. I decided that since this is knit side-to-side, row gauge was more important. This meant I added 8 extra stitches when I cast on for the body. I also made the neck opening about 2 inches narrower than called for. I reversed the cable direction past the neckline so it was symmetrical. The pattern called for a few rows of ribbing at each sleeve, but that was pretty unattractive in this yarn. Instead, I started knitting straight stockinette, and later added the cuffs.

Yarn & needles: Araucania Nature Cotton, 100% cotton, color # 27, 9 skeins. This is a naturally-dyed yarn, so it's it's a single variegated color; the end product looks almost tie dyed. I generally don't like knitting with cotton, but this stuff is lovely. It's very soft, almost fluffy at the thicker parts, so it has a lot of give. It looked extremely pebbly when I was knitting, but it relaxed a bit when i washed it. I used size 10 needles everywhere.

If I could do it over: Oh so many things would change. I grabbed this pattern and yarn at the last minute before a weekend trip. I didn't really think it through; just saw that the gauges might match and went for it. That was kind of a bad idea. The pattern is not something I would normally choose to knit; flat with lots of seaming, and nothing really interesting and challenging. Lots of stockinette with the occasional cable or increases. The yarn and the pattern don't really go together, and some of the resizing I had to do didn't work out tremendously well. Again, it may get better if it stretches. Basically it's not bad enough to frog, but not good enough to wear out of the house.

More yum.

2007-03-30T07:03:00.000-04:00

After the needle snap over the weekend, I started knitting the sock on 4 DPN's instead of 5. It wasn't so pleasant, and I thought I might snap another, so I wanted a back-up set. I went to my favorite LYS for some replacement needles. They didn't have the bamboo, but the owner pointed me toward these, and WOW. They are my new favorite. I have always hated metal needles because of the slipperiness and the irritating clicking noise (BBMM actually hates that even more than I do, I think). These appear to be metal with a plasticy coating of some sort (I doubt it's really plastic, but the package is all in German, so who's to say). They're almost as sticky as bamboo, they're almost as fast as metal, and they are my new best sock friend.

You may notice there's something else in the picture... I sort of accidentally bought more sock yarn. I've been eyeballing this Tofutsies yarn since it first came out, but I'd never seen it in person before. I'd also never seen it in any sort of neutral color. I do not wear a lot of color, and the thought of wearing hot pink and lime striped socks is the opposite of appealing to me. But this... beige and cream and black, and stripey and soft. It's very much a summer sock yarn, as opposed to all the wool I have. Good yardage too; one skein for a pair of socks. See how many excuses I can come up with?

I started swatching it at knitting group when I stopped working on the too-big sock. It seemed at first that it might knit like cotton (shudder) but it actually was a lot softer and springier than I expected, and very easy to work with. Did I mention that it's soft? Here's the one thing that gets me though; size 0 needles were WAY too big. Like drapey, loose fabric that would make a lovely sweater, but certainly not socks. So I will eventually be looking for those same needles, but in sizes which contain multiple zeros. Gulp.

Rrrrrrrrrrip...

2007-03-29T07:04:00.000-04:00

I went to my usual Wednesday night Sit & Knit last night, sock in tow. And look at all that progress!

Since I first started this sock, it seemed big to me. Granted, BBMM has large feet, at least compared to mine. He's a man; his socks should be bigger. And his feet are kind of wide, and I just chalked it up to the difference between a woman's size 6 1/2 and a men's size 11 1/2.

Last night, since I was surrounded by some really awesome knitters, I said "hey awesome knitters, does this sock look big?". There was a pretty resounding yes from the room... So I measured. The sock measured 1/4" BIGGER than BBMM's foot circumference. I stopped knitting. I took it home. I made him try it on. The result:

Oh yeah, it was big. Like 20% too big. I was working on 100 stitches, and after putting it on him I'm starting over with 80. Big difference. On the bright side, this means I should knit 20% faster...

Oops

2007-03-25T21:27:00.000-04:00

Are size 0 bamboo needles just a bad idea? This wasn't even a tension issue, just total clumsiness. At least they come in a set of 5...

Obviously I started the sock.

I ended up using the basic toe-up short-row-everything formula from SKS, with the stitch pattern from the Globetrotter socks. So far so good, I think. I actually did knit the toe too tight; I was a little too scared of gaps. My needles are a warped bendy mess. I plan on trying to breathe through the next part; I'm thinking that will help. Now that I'm through the toe it can travel with me. Mmmm, subway knitting.

Not Representing

2007-03-22T21:05:00.000-04:00

A little explanation on the last post. I couldn't find the mystery porter on Tuesday either. I had to wait until my doorman came back to work on Wednesday. But in wonderful NY doorman fashion, he had it waiting for me in the lobby when I arrived home. He might be my new best friend.

I've already made a gauge swatch from the sock yarn, and I'm working on stitch patterns now. This first pair will be for my husband, who will forever be known as BBMM (Blog Beautification and Maintenance Master). He spent all weekend, as well as several evenings this week, making the blog pretty and functional and exactly what I wanted. There was confusing code and many strange searches and my little head was spinning. I could never, ever have done anything other than a blogger template without him. He also took all the pictures, because he's good at that, and because it's hard to take pictures of your own feet. He deserves socks. And cookies. And perhaps sainthood, but I don't have a lot of sway over that.

The bummer of the day is this; you have figured out by now that I live in NYC. Tonight, as I type, Yarn Harlot is speaking at FIT, for the debut of her Represent tour. I am not there. If all went as planned, there were knitters all over New York today; they met at the Today show this morning, they met at Strawberry Fields at noon (with socks; lots and lots of socks), they went on yarn crawls all afternoon, and then there was the book signing & lecture at 6. Sadly, work and life and other such things interfered, and I couldn't go to any of it. But I love the idea of it, and I hope the auditorium was bursting at the seams, with knitters spilling out onto the sidewalks and totally freaking out the tourists. I can't wait until I find out how it went.

And Choirs of Angels Sang...

2007-03-21T22:31:00.000-04:00

The Comedy of Errors Continues

2007-03-19T19:57:00.000-04:00

The package saga may never end.

This morning I checked UPS, and my yarn was on the move; it had made it from Jersey to NY, and onto a truck for delivery. This was good; I wasn't going to be home for delivery, and there is no doorman on Mondays to sign for it, but at least I would be able to reschedule delivery, and I would know exactly when it would arrive.

But this afternoon I checked again, and it said "Delivered". To whom? The porter. I was not aware that my building even had a porter, but apparently it does, and he had my yarn, and it was a beautiful thing. I raced home after work and realized that I had no earthly idea where to find my mystery porter. I scoured the basement, but nobody home. I actually called both UPS and my super to make sure the package was actually delivered to someone who works here, as opposed to a random street urchin who knows how to sign a name. Indeed, my package is in the basement, a mere 6 floors below me.

But there is a catch, since the yarn gods clearly have no intention of ever letting me knit a sock again. Apparently the porter works regular business hours. He is not here, nor is anybody else who has the keys to the little room where my lonely yarn sits.

I can't get my yarn until tomorrow.

Perhaps now would be the time to learn how to pick locks.

The Sweater that Kidnapped the Yarn

2007-03-18T13:44:00.000-04:00

This is another recent FO; the sweater that started the "where's my yarn" madness. We have a pregnant relative; she's having a girl and she's due in April. My MIL and I decided to make her a baby set. We found this adorable pattern, and split up the work; I would make the sweater and she would make the bonnet and booties.

The pattern told us to buy 3 balls of yarn; 2 for the sweater and 1 for the hat and booties. She knit the bonnet in record time, using about half a ball of yarn. However, we realized about halfway through the sweater that we were never going to make it (this was probably the first time in my life that I didn't buy an extra ball of yarn just in case; go figure). Concerned about dye-lot, we decided I would use her extra yarn to finish the sweater, and we'd buy her another ball for the booties. That extra ball of yarn is what's currently being held hostage by UPS in New Jersey, along with the sock yarn and stitch markers that I threw in the cart to "round out" the purchase.

So my poor MIL has been finished with the bonnet for 2 weeks, and is STILL waiting to start the booties. Once I get the yarn, I still need to send it to her; I think I'll be using FedEx.

Pattern:
As linked above. It is oh so cute, and a really fun knit, but the pattern is AWFUL. There are parts that truly don't make any sense at all, especially on the hat and booties. I think it would drive a beginner batty with frustration. The only change I made (other than a lot of deciphering) was to knit the sleeves in the round instead of flat; I hate sewing seams.

Yarn & needles:
Dale of Norway Baby Ull, 100% superwash merino, color Shell Pink. I read great things about this yarn, so we decided to try it. I loved working with it; it knits up quickly and easily despite the fine gage. On the needles it felt pretty scratchy and inappropriate for a baby. After a washing, it really softened up, and bloomed to a much loftier look. I used size 3 needles for the body and size 2 for the ribbing; my MIL had to size down to a 2 and a 1. The ribbon is some 1/4" double-faced white satin I had laying around; it will be used in the bonnet and booties as well.

If I could do it over:
No changes, other than buying enough yarn in the first place. The instant gratification of baby clothes slays me; size 3 needles, fingering weight yarn, and I still finished in about a week. The YO patterns are very cute on this set too; the band at the hem and sleeves is also on the booties. The YO decreases at the yoke are mirrored on the bonnet. I'm not a girl who likes cute, pink things, but I am head over heels for this set. I have a pregnant coworker, and if she ends up having a girl I will make the whole set again for her.

Beaded Rib Socks

2007-03-17T19:26:00.000-04:00

These are the socks that have been my subway knitting for the last month or so. They are also the first socks I've ever made for myself, and I may never take them off. I now know why people become addicts for these babies. Warm, but not too warm. Soft, but not squishy or slippery. So very, very yummy. They fit really well too; I've been wearing them for several hours with and without shoes and they are staying up without slipping or binding. Desperate for the sock yarn (still in Secaucus) to arrive so I can make more. I've been trying to convince my husband for months that he needs homemade socks, and he's finally given in and is letting me make him some. So if I'm feeling generous I'll make these. But what I really want to do next are these; I'm looking for a challenge!

Pattern:
Beaded Rib from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch . Knit exactly as pattern; toe up with a short row toe and heel. I love this book; I tend to mess with my patterns a lot, and she provides basic formulas, gives you a bunch of stitch patterns, and lets you have at it.

Yarn & Needles:
Wildfoote, color Mums, 2 skeins with quite a bit left over. It's a beautiful color; 1 ply each of rust, black, beige and coral. I'm not sure if I would use it again; it's beautiful, but not terrifically soft. It's better on the stockinette sole than on the patterned bits though. The yarn is also pretty thing; I compared to most sock yarns; I compared it to Trekking the other day, and it was about the same or a little thinner. It's very easy to knit with. The plies seemed pretty loosely twisted, so I was worried it would split a lot. To my surprise, it didn't at all, despite having to tink and reknit the bindoff 4 times. I used size 0 DPN's for the foot, and size 1's for the leg so I'd have a bit more room.

If I could do it over:
I would keep the toe-up construction (perfect when using a new yarn), the short row toe and the short row heel. I love the look; heel flaps seem chunky to me on plainer socks. The rib pattern works really well with this yarn; there's just enough going on with each that they don't compete with each other. I had actually swatched a cable pattern and it was pretty invisible for the effort, so I went with this.
I would make the foot about 1/2" longer before starting the heel. I thought the heel would be deeper than it is, so it doesn't quite cup the heel. That makes the heel is a little short too; the pattern starts up again underneath the top of my shoe. None of this seems to bother me as far as fit, it's just little details that keep them from being perfect.

Lonely, lonely yarn

2007-03-16T07:10:00.000-04:00

I just finished my first pair of socks (picture to follow once they are dry). This is pretty monumental for me; other than toes and heels, the ONLY time I knit on these socks was on the subway, and only when I get a seat, so my total output was anywhere from 0-8 rounds a day. Slow going, but a really nice portable project. And I learned that I love knitting socks. And wearing socks. And trying on socks in progress.

Last weekend I had to order another ball of yarn for a different project (more on that later). Now it seems just silly to order one ball of yarn, and pay shipping for such a tiny thing, and I didn't have any more sock yarn, and excuses and excuses. So I threw in some sock yarn; I figured the timing was perfect, I wanted to start another pair this weekend, and it would be sure to arrive by Thursday. Ahem.

The last UPS tracking message said that my package left Chicago on the 14th at 1 am. No problem, well on track to be here by Friday, maybe even Thursday. Then, nothing. No update Thursday. 36 hours went by, and I didn't know where my yarn was. I've driven from Chicago to New York; even on a slow UPS truck, no way it would take more than, say 20 hours. I assumed the worst; the truck crashed, spilling yarn across the highway. Or thieves absconded with my yarn (because that Patons Kroy is SO valuable). Or the driver got pulled over for drunk driving, and was now in prison while his truck just sat there. Either way,the yarn was getting lonely. I was getting lonely. I don't WANT to work on a sweater; I want to make more socks, and I want to make them NOW.

So this morning I got up and ran to the computer. Actually, first I ran to the window, because there's this storm coming, and if it hit early maybe I could stay home today, but no, only a half inch. So then I ran to the computer, and hit UPS, and it says that the yarn is in Secaucus, NJ. This is very, very close to me. Unfortunately it also says this "THE PACKAGE IS DELAYED DUE TO EMERGENCY CONDITIONS BEYOND UPS' CONTROL".

Now I know there's a storm coming. I know they keep upping the expected accumulation. I know there is probably some ice already on the roads. I am aware of all of this. But there is no storm outside my window, and there probably won't be until this afternoon. There is no way that weather is causing this delay. So I'm thinking that one of the above theories must be true. And I'm telling you, if my yarn has highway grime on it when I finally get it, I'm going to be PISSED.

Deep Breath

2007-03-15T21:00:00.000-04:00

OK, I've done it. I've started a blog. I've been contemplating it for a long time, but it seemed like such a commitment. Knitting takes up most of my free time anyway. Then I started reading knitblogs. Now writing one... I don't know how (or even if) I'll find the time.

So why am I doing it? It's a last straw sort of thing for me. I love reading knitblogs. I love seeing what people are knitting, I love sympathising with the frustration, I love cheering along when someone learns something new, or accomplishes what seems impossible, or just makes something beautiful. And I don't know many knitters, so there are very few people to sympathise or cheer along with me. I know very few people who can view my knitting with fresh eyes; who can tell me if something is working or not, who can help me step away, take a deep breath, and say "frog it honey, really" or "this is worth showing off".

So this last straw? Today I wore a sweater to work. It was not only a sweater I made, but a sweater I designed. I had an idea, I played with stitch patterns, I swatched, I wrote a pattern, I knit, I adjusted, I knit some more. I finished it, blocked it, and let it sit in a drawer for a couple months. I thought I liked it, but I couldn't tell if it was a good sweater, or if it was just something I was proud of accomplishing. Today I wore it for the first time. Lo and behold, the second person I saw at work said "Hey, that's a great sweater." Gulp. Then another one; "I love your sweater." So I decided; I need to show people my stuff. It's so dumb to spend so much time on something and then let it languish in a drawer. Granted, I have made things that ought never see the light of day. That's fine. But sometimes the process and the product get all tangled up like a bad ball of mohair, and I just can't tell. Do I hate it because it's awful, or because I'm sick of cabling? Do I think it's beautiful because it is, or because I'm just proud to have finished. Hopefully, this is where I'll find out. And if not, at least I'll have taken the time to take a picture and put it out there.

Oh, and I promise this is the last rambling philosophical post for a while. Next time, there will be socks and yarn and other yummy things!