Opposite Ends of the Spectrum

I've finished a couple of pairs of socks.







Claudia Hand Painted Yarns, Bearded Iris colourway.





I love the colours in this yarn, but the tactile experience didn't quite match the visual. The colours were glorious, but I found the yarn a little hard and lifeless. They're a bit better after washing, but still not as soft and sproingy as many other yarns. Frankly, though, the colours make up for it. They're very vibrant.



I didn't notice until I took the pictures how differently the two socks came out -- one more brown, the other more purple. I quite like how they're sort of stripey, but not.







My other pair couldn't have been more different.




It's Tofutsies. I've wanted to try this yarn since it first came out. (I'm guessing my inner Cancerian drew me to the exoskeletons of my sea-borne brethren.) The skein kind of makes you dizzy, doesn't it. It's a mix of white, a black-grey marl, and a brown-beige marl. It kind of makes you dizzy when it's knit up as well.

The yarn again felt kind of hard when I was knitting it up, but a trip through the washer and dryer softened it up quite nicely. I found it quite splitty on the first sock, but by the second one my hands must have got accustomed to it and I had no problems. Except for picking up the gusset stitches, that is. It took forever, not because it was splitting but because I had a hard time seeing the stitches with all that marling going on.

This was my first foray into cotton-mix yarns. I am a little surprised at how much I like the resultant fabric, but I think I'll have to revise my standard sock formula. These fit just a trifle loosely, despite being ribbed all the way down. I think I'll have to reduce the number of stitches for my next pair.

In the Other News Department, my missing cable needle still hasn't shown up. I think it's gone south for the winter. When I first put out an APB on him, several people suggested that I simply cable without a needle. I find that works well on larger things, but for socks, I tend to lose stitches without the extra holder. I've not been able to find any more metal cable needles, just the icky plastic ones, so I've had to improvise.

Curtain hooks to the rescue!

Norovember Scarf

One ball.


Two balls.


Three balls.


Four balls.


1 x 1 rib till the cows come home.


Easy peasey.


More fun than should be legal.


Silk Garden 230 & 208.


The Noro Striped scarf, as popularized by Brooklyn Tweed.


Go make one.


The hardest part is trying to winnow down the 237 pictures you'll take.

KTS4 - it's here !!

It's been a good mail week here chez Jickets -- my Knitters' Tea Swap 4 package has arrived!


My swap partner was Bridget, and she certainly came through for me. She sent me two types of tea, both of which smell wonderful; a tin in which to keep my tea, which I must admit was an accessory that I didn't know I Absolutely Needed until now, some very yummy Italian cookies, gorgeous blue and green stripey sock yarn, and some incredibly soft bulky alpaca yarn -- I'm thinking it wants to be a hat. Thank you so much, Bridget!

I live in Canada, and I do work for a living. The result of these two factors means that I'm often stuck, particularly in the winter, trying to find decent light for photographs. It's sometimes even difficult to get my trademark crappy front stoop photos when the window of opportunity is only an hour or two. I managed to convince myself that I needed help.

Help has arrived! I now don't have to worry about getting a quick shot between snow squalls and before my fingers freeze. It's just a matter of piling everything into there and snapping away!

Maybe not. This might take a bit of practise.

Not too bad.
Hmmmm - soft and squishy!

I had to go stash diving to play a bit.

Potential scarfey stripeyness!

This could be a bigger time suck than even Ravelry -- but I can drink tea and munch cookies while I'm at it!