Criminy Jickets

On hiatus

2010-01-24T10:02:00.001-05:00

I am taking a blog break, which may or may not become permanent.

I am still knitting and spinning and will continue to keep track of my projects on Ravelry.

Thanks very much for reading, and commenting, and just generally being there.

Before signing off, one quick note for locals: Knit-Knackers is hosting a men’s “knit nite” this coming Wednesday, January 27, “about 5-ish.” I haven’t yet been to their new location, so I thought this would be a good time to check it out.

Titles are the hardest part of blogging … other than the actual blogging part, that is

2009-12-28T22:18:00.001-05:00

So, I’m sitting here spinning and knitting away, getting close to finishing a few things, and I start to think about what I’m going to say about them on the blog, and then I begin to wonder, you know, when was the last time I blogged? So I checked. Oh. Okay. I’m behind again. Some day I’ll be organized enough to actually keep up. Maybe a New Year’s Resolution? Nah. :-)

Yummy Falkland from All Spun Up in the catchy colourway name of November/December Spin-a-Long. This was an easy spin, but it’s hard to capture the colours correctly. They’re deep purples and dark blues and intense greens, livened up with a bit of gold and yellow and brown.

I spun up all 8 oz. and ended up with 756 yards, 15 wpi, chain ply.

I love it – deep and dark, with a few highlights. And even though I took about 100 pictures, those are the only ones that even remotely get the colours right. I guess I should read the manual for the dang camera some day and figure out what all those other buttons and knobs and switches are for. :-)

And from a totally different colour family:

Wonky! A quick and easy knit for a thicker yarn, and yes, it really is that bright. I used the yarn I wrote about here. It was knit up as a last minute Christmas gift, and the giftee loved it. Happiness all around.

And switching gears yet again:

This is 8 oz of merino, Holly Berry colourway, from the CJ Kopec November/December Spin-a-Long. I really wanted to make a thick and thin art yarn type thing, but my hands didn’t want to cooperate. I ended up spinning it into two thin plies and then holding the two together as I chain plied.

I quite like the marled tweedy effect, and it’s a good way to bulk up some otherwise thin singles. I wasted a fair bit of the fibre when I was goofing around with it, but I still ended up with 205 yards, 9 wpi, 6 ply.

There, all caught up, again … at least until tomorrow. :-)

Round and round

2009-12-14T08:51:00.001-05:00

Life continues to drive me round and round, seasonal stuff, work stuff, you know, life. Gets so you just feel like you’re running around in circles and nothing is really accomplished.

Except for a bit of knitting in the round:

It’s the Fat Cat Knits yarn from the previous post that I spun into a gradient yarn to shift from pale through orange into blue, knit into a möbius scarf/cowl thingamajig. No pattern, just used Cat Bordhi’s möbius cast-on and carried on knitting. And then I ripped it apart and doubled the number of stitches, and carried on knitting. Swatch? Who needs a swatch when you can just rip out a coupla thousand stitches and start all over again? Easy to knit, but I found scootching all those stitches around the circular needle and through the three-dimensional warp to be a bit of a pain. I guess I’m too used to DPNs.

When I got close to the end, I started to realize that I had to, you know, end, somehow, so it wouldn’t roll. I did some seed stitch. Moss stitch? Whatever. Took it off the needles, and it rolled. Blocked it, and it rolled. Steamed the heck out of it, and it stopped rolling. For a day or two. And then it rolled. And I’m going to leave it that way. :-)

I’m quite happy with it, though. It’s the perfect size. Wrap it around the neck three times, and it fills in that spot between the collar of your coat and your neck wonderfully. But I won’t make another one. Unless I forget what a pain this one was. But it might be nice to have a big, fluffy one. Hmm.

Fluffy, sparkly Happy Hooves batts from Enchanted Knoll, Good Fortune colourway. Yumm. Spun up the singles a couple of months ago.

These batts are about 6 oz, so a little more fibre than usual. I wound them into a plying ball and then, because I wanted to keep it all in one length, it sat, and sat, and sat, while I waited for my bulky/plying flyer to arrived. Which it finally did, so I plied.

498 yards, 15 wpi, of squishy green goodness. I was originally thinking sock yarn, but it might be a bit soft. Maybe something else, maybe socks.

I’m not sure I’m totally happy with the plying flyer. The big bobbins do hold a lot of yarn, but it also makes it harder to treadle with the tension set for a strong wind on. I’ll continue to play with, but so far, I’m kinda meh about it.

Catching Up: a four-fer

2009-11-30T21:01:00.001-05:00

I have the most wonderful readers in the world. Many, many thanks to the overwhelming number of people who commented on my last post about Tidget, my missing cat. Quite a few of you have gone through the same thing, and some of you were lucky enough to have your cat come back, even after an extended period, which was wonderful to read. I’m sad to have to report that I’ve not seen Tidget, nor have I received any calls from someone who might have found her. I suppose it’s still possible that she will return – who knows? On the positive side, my other cat, Muushuu, has had a dramatic change in personality. I hadn’t realized just how submissive he was to the bossy Miss T. He has blossomed in the last two weeks into a total love sponge.

Meanwhile, the fibery activity has continued, so it’s time to play catch up. Sorry if it’s a bit of overload, but I seem to have fallen behind, so I’m going to a one swell foop type post and “git ’er done.”

I’ve been knitting. :-)

Back in June of ’09, I spun a sparkly red yarn from a merino/silk/glitz batt from Enchanted Knoll. It’s now become a Mirage scarf.

I love the texture in this pattern.

I’ve already given it to friend who fell in love with the yarn when I first spun it, and she’s already worn it at least twice in my presence. I know it’s not necessary, and once you give something away you have no stake in it, but I must admit that I do love it when people appreciate and use gifts – especially handcrafts.

A more recent spin, this time a BFL/silk blend from The Thylacine, has become a 198 yds of Heaven shawl.

After blocking, the yarn softened up quite nicely and has a bit of shimmer from the silk. I followed the same mods described in other Ravelry projects to make the edging line up better with the pattern.

I’m not normally one for lace patterns in multi-coloured yarns, but I think this stitch pattern is strong enough to hold its own with the subtle striping. This will be a Christmas present for my new sister-in-law. I know she wears shawls, but I don’t know she feels about handcrafts. I guess I’ll find out.

The spinning continues.

This merino/silk/bamboo blend is the first instalment of a new round of the Mixed Blessings club from Fat Cat Knits. I love doing these, because it really gives you a chance to play. I decided to rip the two braids apart and separate out the colours. One I kept with all the dark purple and blue tones, and the other …

… I tried to gradate from yellow through orange to blue. The finished yarn, 366 yards of two-ply at 15 wpi, came out like this:

Since I seem to be in full-blown scarf mode, it’s already been cast and about half knit. But more about when it’s done. :-)

Just one more:

This was my first try at spinning Rambouillet. It’s from Hungry for Handspun in the Purple Dusk colourway. It’s related to merino, and the fibre has that same spongy feel. The finished yarn came out quite soft and really poofed up after finishing.

It’s a three-ply sock weight, 477 yards from 4.5 oz, and 15 wpi. I loves it muchly.

There, all caught up. If you made it this far, thanks for sticking it out! :-)

Public Service Announcement

2009-11-19T23:16:00.001-05:00

Back in July of 2006, I wrote about how my cat Tidget came to live with me instead of the local Humane Society. Since that time, we developed into a fairly comfortable rhythm of life together. She has a few little quirks, but so do I, so we’re even.

Her favourite thing, other than food, is cuddling. After the first week I got her, not a night goes by without her spending a few minutes licking either my nose or my ear, whichever is closest, and then purring away loudly for about five minutes before falling asleep with her head resting on either my hand or my arm.

She’s not much for sitting on a lap, though. She’ll visit for a minute or two if I’m sitting on the couch watching television, but then she’ll go find something else to do. She hates the vacuum cleaner, and at the slightest hint of a thunderstorm, she runs under the bed and stays there for an hour or so. I have never been completely able to convince her to use the scratching post instead of the carpet on the stairs, but she never used the furniture. No one’s perfect.

She’s not a particularly needy cat, like some I’ve had, but when she wants loving, nothing will stop her from planting herself firmly against my chest, one front leg on either side of my neck, head tucked firmly under my chin, insisting on being petted and rubbed and even squeezed. She purrs so much she starts drooling. It’s kind of gross, but in an endearing way that probably only another cat person would understand.

When I got Muushuu in January of 2007, she quickly accepted him, or at least his physical presence. They’ve never become best buddies, but they will often both be sleeping on the back of the loveseat – on opposite side of it. She’ll accept him grooming her for brief periods, but I’ve only ever seen her take a half-hearted lick at his forehead once. She has no problem sharing the litter box, and she delights in cleaning up his food bowl if he leaves some behind. All in all, it’s been a fairly happy little family.

On Monday night, when I came from work, I was met at the door by only one cat, Muushuu. This isn’t particularly unusual, especially if Tidget is sleeping downstairs. I usually just go about my business, which will ultimately conclude in them getting fed a bit of wet food to supplement their regular diet of dry, and usually she’ll come upstairs when she realizes what is happening and sit waiting semi-patiently for me to open the can and prepare their bowls. That didn’t happen this past Monday, though. I kept thinking she’d come up any minute, but Muushuu was already eating and still no Tidget. I decided I better go get her.

She wasn’t sleeping on the bed, where I would normally find her. She wasn’t in the office, under the desk, where she would sometimes have a nap. She wasn’t in the storage room where I keep their litter box. She wasn’t under the bed, where she would go if something startled her. Something wasn’t right. I looked in the bathroom, and even checked the tub. No Tidget. Back upstairs I went. Not on the couch or either of the chairs. Not by the radiator that runs under the credenza in the dining room. I looked behind the couch, in case she’d fallen and got wedged against the wall. Nope. I looked behind the wall unit where I keep the tv, thinking maybe she’d gone back there and got tangled in some wires. I made another round of the whole house, checking all the closets and hidey-holes. Nope, no Tidget.

And then, I remembered.

That morning, I was running just a little bit late. Not much, only about five minutes. The day before, I had picked up some granola bars to take to work in case I got the munchies. After I’d closed the door and gone down the front steps, I remembered that I’d left them inside on the window ledge, where I’d put them while I was putting on my shoes.

So, I went back into the house, walked the four steps to the ledge, grabbed the granola bars and stuffed them in my pocket, then four steps back to the door. Then I saw that the door had swung open. I saw it and it registered on my consciousness because I always, always, always push it shut so it clicks, even if my arms are full of groceries coming in or garbage bags going out or whatever. I always shut it till it clicks. But this time, I hadn’t. It was open for the time it takes to take three steps in and three steps out -- less than five seconds. Muushuu was asleep on the couch, and Tidget was asleep downstairs on the bed, and I was five minutes behind schedule. A glance at the front porch revealed nothing amiss, so I locked the door again as I left and went to work. Except … Tidget must not have been asleep on the bed downstairs.

I realized what must have happened. At this point, I’d been gone for over 12 hours, and who knows where she could have went. She’d been strictly an indoor cat for the last three and a half years and certainly wasn’t street smart. I put on my coat and started searching, walking the neighbourhood and calling her name, but the chances of seeing a small greyish-brown cat somewhere in the dark were pretty slim.

I was up early the next morning, and as soon as it was light, I was out again. I widened my search, but you know, in the average suburban neighbourhood, there are a LOT of places that a cat could hunker down for a night. I didn’t find her. I went back home and made up some “lost cat” posters to put on the power poles and assorted neighbourhood posts. Tidget was wearing a collar, with tags, and she was micro-chipped. Someone would find her and call me. I alerted the Humane Society in case someone turned her in.

It happened on Monday, and it’s now Thursday night, so Day 4. Someone might have taken her in, but it’s not likely. I still might get a call from the Humane Society, but that’s even less likely. It’s getting colder out there, and now it’s raining. She survived being a stray once, but I somehow doubt she’ll get lucky again.

Please don’t comment and tell me what a crappy pet owner I am. Nothing you could say would make me feel worse about myself than I already do. My split second of inattention has more than likely had the most serious of consequences for an animal that I undertook to care for and to love. I failed her. Over the past 30 odd years, I’ve had five other cats besides these two, as well as three dogs, umpteen birds, lizards, fish, etc. I am well aware of pet safety and care, and I have been proud to say that all of the animals in my care have had a full, long and rather spoiled life. Until now.

The anguish I’ve been going through for the past few days is nothing compared to what Tidget must be experiencing right now, if indeed she is even still alive. I haven’t been able to accept that she is gone yet, and I will never be able to forgive myself for causing this to happen to her. I failed her, and she is paying the price for that failure.

Why am I writing this post? I guess it’s because I was due for a reminder. And if I was due, maybe somebody else is too, and maybe I can save them from going through something like this.

Here’s my public service announcement for today:

Please, whoever reads this, remember the little things we do to keep ourselves and those in our care safe. One tiny moment of inattention can have far-reaching consequences for ourselves, our children, wife, husband, friends, neighbours, or our pets. Please, even if you’re late or tired, even if the dog is barking or the baby is crying, even if its raining or snowing or the person driving the car in front of you is going too slow or someone is talking to you or whatever the distraction, please, just be careful.

I am a big, fat liar.

2009-11-11T20:03:00.001-05:00

Note to self: Possibly change post title to, “I sometimes fear for my sanity.” Think about it.

So, I decided I wanted to knit a scarf, and I decided I wanted to use some of my handspun. I picked out what was probably the most colourful one, my Grafton singles.

Not the best picture, but it’s a felted single that graduates from blue through a yellowish to red. You can read the details about the yarn here, but I’ll save you the trouble, because really the only pertinent detail is that I said it was 175 yards and about 10 wpi, or worsted weight. That’s also what I filled in on the Ravelry page for the yarn, which is what I use to keep of myself.

Side note: I read somewhere on Ravelry that when you make felted singles, you should carefully rewind the hank after washing and while it’s still barely damp-ish. I read that well after I spun the yarn, so of course I didn’t do it. It took a full two hours just to wind the yarn into a ball because it was stuck to itself. If I ever do it again, I will rewind. I was pleased, though, in that it held together quite nicely all through that process. Yippee for felting!

Back to the scarf: The other thing I noticed while rewinding is that the yarn was, well, kind of, umm, thin. Like, quite thin. As in, really thin. Yes, there were some places where it was likely worsted weight, but for the majority, maybe fingering, possibly lace. Yeah, that thin. See the first line of this post? Yeah.

The thinness made me kind of revise my scarf plans. I didn’t really want a wispy scarflette. I do live in Canada, and we do have winter. I decided to stripe it with another yarn to give the scarf more substance. The Noro Striped scarf would be wonderful, non-concentration knitting, which was just what I needed after my father’s recent death, as my concentration really wasn’t up to much more than that. After a bit of stash diving, I found a skein of Patons Classic Merino in Oatmeal, Perfect! Right?

Maybe not. I don’t know if you can tell from the picture, but the Patons skein is just about collapsed, so there’s not much left. The handspun, on the other hand? Tons left. The yellow is just barely starting to peak through, and that would be about one-third of the way through. So the Patons skein of 220 odd yards is just about gone, and the handspun, not even a third. But I had measured 175 yards. Apparently not only did I mis-measure the weight of the yarn, I mis-measured the length of it. See the first line of this post? Yeah.

Another problem is that the difference in the yarn weight was just too much. The handspun stripes of colour were thin and drapey, and the worsted weight oatmeal was kind of puckery and tight. Not the best matching of yarns.

The other problem, that you can’t really tell from the photo, is that the knitting is three feet long. If I carried on, the finished scarf would be about, what, 10 feet long? Who knows? Not me, because at this point I have no idea how much yarn I have.

So what did I do? I ripped out three feet of 1x1 two-colour ribbing, with one yarn being a single. See the first line of this post? Yeah. Not fun.

Time to go stash diving again.

This was given to me by a friend, and it was given to him by his sister. I believe she just stopped knitting for some reason, and he wouldn’t touch anything remotely woolly, so it came to me. The yarn is a DK weight alpaca blend. I know the yarn store it came from, and it’s been out of business for several years. Even in it’s heyday, though, it was kind of known for having, ummm, vintage yarn. I wasn't surprised that Ravelry has never heard of Marika Country.

Starting over, I decided that I would double up the use of the handspun by knitting one stripe with both the alpaca and one with just the handspun. I added about a third more stitches and went down a few needles sizes.

Yuck, and also uggh. So, what did I do? I ripped it out, again. See the first line of this post? Yeah.

Back to Plan A, with the larger number of stitches and smaller needles. I decided to just knit until the handspun ran out, because that's the kind of mood I was in. Three and a half 115-yard balls of Marika later, it was done.

What did I learn? Well, one, to measure my yarns more carefully Maybe even two or three times. It’s really hard to plan a project when you don’t know what you have. Two, those people who say you don’t need to swatch for a scarf are wrong. It would have helped in the planning process, and I don’t think I would have dug myself in so deep if I knew it was going to end up at eight feet long. I’m short, and if I wear it looped like I would normally, it will hang down to my knees. Folded in half and just draped around my neck, though, it will be fine, but the colour progression isn’t as obvious. Three, my neck is going to be nice and warm this winter. :-)

And also:

Ysolda’s long tail tubular cast-on is easy and a Thing of Beauty.

Tech Knitting’s Easy Fake tubular bind off?

Also easy, but not quite so beautiful. I should have just Kitchenered. And no, I am not ripping it out and doing it over, and yes, after eight feet of it, I am very much over 1x1 rib for a while.

The wheel has also been busy.

This superwash BFL from a CJ Kopec spin-a-long is now …

… some three-ply sock yarn, and it *might* be 368 yards, 16 wpi.

585

2009-10-19T12:15:00.001-04:00

I stopped entering blog contests a while ago because I figured I’d done my fair share of winning when I first started blogging and it would only be fair to let other people have a chance, but for some reason, when Joan had a contest to guess the yardage in a skein of yarn she’d spun, the number 585 jumped right into my head. I checked her comments and no one else had guessed that yet, which quite surprised me, because, you know, it was SO COMPLETELY OBVIOUS. Before I had a chance to control myself, I’d entered. Well, turns out I was wrong. The correct answer was 576. But, as luck would have it, I was less wrong than anyone else, so I WON! Wanna see what she sent me? Of course you do.

Mmmm, nummies!! Cookies, Buffalo bars (Did you know Buffalos only have 330 calories per serving? I didn’t.), sponge candy and some wonderful smelling soap so I can wash my sticky fingers after I munch.

There might have also been some fibre.

Hmmmm, softies!! On the right is some beautifully heathered merino in the Cranberry colourway from Firefly Farm, and on the left? It’s from Spirit Trail Fiberworks, Moon Shadows colourway, merino, silk and angora!! Dudes!!

Thank you, Joan -- you do know how to spoil a guy!! The moral for everyone else? 585 is a lucky number. Remember that, mkay?

So, what have I been up to? Well, knitting. Still no socks – sock mojo continues to be a a no-go – but I did knit up some of my handspun into a shawl/scarf thingy.

The pattern is the uber-simple Boneyard Shawl by Stephen West, which I still managed to screw up, but whatever. I figured a triangle shape would suit the light-to-dark shading in the stripes.

The main feature of the pattern is lines of garter stitch every 12 rows. I did them every 10, because it was easier and I felt like it. I’m quite happy with the project, from start to finish, but turns out that I prefer the back side. Sort of makes the garter ridges moot, but I think the colour changes are smoother. Design element, down the tubes. That’s just the way it goes sometimes.

The wheel has been kept busy too.

This is some super fluffy and soft superwash BFL in the Trust Me colourway from CJ Kopek. It’s part of a spin-a-long on Ravelry where we were given photos of the inspiration behind the colourway but not a picture of the actual fibre, which I think is kind of a fun idea. The colours aren’t really me, so I wasn’t really worried about making a yarn for a specific purpose and instead gave myself permission to play.

Techy stuff: Divided the fibre into four lengths. Predrafted two of them together to mix and meld the colours, then did the same with the other two. Held both lengths together as I drafted at the wheel. This gave me a very mixed up and marled single. I chained the single, chained the chain and then added plying twist.

End result, 75 yards, 9-ply double chained, 8 wpi. I like it! I think it will make a great Wonky. I guess I should get started on that so I can actually use it this year, eh?

End note: Anyone else using Windows Live Writer to write blog posts? Wow, so much easer. My only complaint is that it won’t accept my defaults and I have to format each photo. Even that’s just two clicks,though, and it’s much easier than all the dragging and dropping I had to do before. So, does easier equal more frequent posts? That remains to be seen.

Distractions

2009-10-09T23:39:00.011-04:00

You may correctly surmise by the lack of a “finished my September Sock-a-Month socks!” post that I did not, in fact, finish my September Sock-a-Month socks.

Instead, I dug out some Tinsel Toes in the Prince of the Wood Elves colourway from the Unique Sheep.

I got this yarn as part of their Lord of the Rings sock club, but since I’m not really sold on tencel blends for socks, it sat until its time came to be something else. That time had arrived.

It was perfect for a Milkweed shawl. The pattern is well written, and a quick and easy knit. The colours in the yarn are subtle enough that, when knit in garter stitch, they don’t obscure the pattern at all but just add a bit of depth. The tencel gives it a nice silvery sheen.

Sometimes, when you can’t be there in person to give someone a comforting hug, a knit has to take your place. This was quickly wrapped up and sent off to be where I could not.

I then returned to my socks, but found they weren’t absorbing enough and left me too much time to think and worry, so back to the spinning wheel I went.

This gorgeous rusty brown Corriedale was a gift from Briley. He dyed it and sent to me, thinking it would make some nice sock yarn. It turned out beautifully.

It came out at 319 yards, 15 wpi, 3 ply. Thanks, Brian – it was a pleasure to spin, and I love the subtle colours. I’m looking forward to knitting it up to see how the Corriedale fares compared to the merino and BFL sock yarns I’ve made.

So yes, I can put some music on and spin away, letting my thoughts be absorbed into the colours flowing through my fingers. It feels strange that I now get that feeling from spinning instead of knitting, but there it is, and there’s no sense fighting it. I couldn’t really leave the bobbins empty, could I?

Out came some 50/70 oatmeal BFL/silk in some beautifully calm, cool colours. It’s from The Thylacine, a colourway named Sandspit River. Silk still seems to give me trouble, but I patiently worked my way through it.

At 12 wpi, it’s a bit thicker than was I hoping, even though it’s only a 2-ply, but 220 yards should give me enough to do something with. I don’t what, but something.

And just as I was hanging it to dry after setting the twist, I got the phone call I was waiting for. Things still aren’t good, but they’re better. I can downgrade my worrying to a state of watchful concern. I suppose that’s about the best one can ask for in the circumstances. In the meanwhile, I’m thankful I have distractions.

Chain Gang

2009-09-14T09:05:00.009-04:00

I've been keeping the new spinning wheel busy.

This is 8 oz of merino/silk/bamboo, the August/September Spin-a-long from All Spun Up.

And so is this.

And this.

I decided to try chain plying, also sometimes called Navaho plying. It's a method that helps keep the colours separate rather than the barberpole effect you get with a regular two or three ply. I love the result. I ended up with 404 yards, 10-12 wpi. The came out soft and shiny. I found it a bit hard to draft because of the silk and bamboo, but it was totally worth the extra effort.

This is BFL in a colourway called Eclipse, the third installment of the Fat Cat Knits Mixed Blessings club.

I decided to chain ply this one too.

I divided the brown/purple/green plait into short, thick sections, so that it would give longer runs of solid colour. The other one was divided into long, thin sections, for shorter runs with more mixing of the colour.

The overall effect is mostly brown/burgundy, with little blips of other colours coming through in between. It came out at 164 yards for 5 oz., 9 wpi.

I kinda like this chain plying stuff, and it's nice to be able to do something other than the regular barberpole.

In the knitting front, I'd like to thank everyone who offered advice on the sock in progress in the last post. Opinions were fairly divided between keeping it plain and letting the yarn do its stripey thing as opposed to mixing it up with the cable pattern. In the end, I decided to try to get the best of both worlds. Four cables, two up each side, with a plain section in between.

I like it! And bonus, it's faster to knit. Or, it would be if I could get off the wheel and back onto the needles.

Falling into Fall

2009-09-06T17:07:00.009-04:00

I'm starting to feel a bit more comfortable with the spinning wheel. Or at least I don't think it's running away on me most of the time, which is a start.

This is 4.3 oz of merino from Freckle Face Fibers in the Aquazone colourway, an unusual combination of aqua, forest green, mint and purple. I asked it what it wanted to be, and it responded that a three-ply sock weight might be a good idea.

I think it was right. It ended up at 503 yards, 15 wpi. Still a bit under-plied, but I think it will knit up okay. When I'm spindling, I always over-ply, because I like it like that, so I'll have to try to remember to give an extra treadle or two when plying on the wheel.

I think it will make some good socks, though. Whenever I get around to knitting it, that is.

Knitting is progressing too, although slowly. I've started on my September socks. One of the problems with taking all your UFOs and throwing them into a personal sock club is that they were probably UFOs for a reason, and that reason was likely a problem of some sort or other, and when their turn comes up, you have to solve that problem.

In this case, I think it was just that the yarn was knitting up into the usual spiraling stripe that you often get with handpaints, and I wanted to mix it up a bit. I decided to try it with a slip stitch cable.

But now I can't decide if it looks delightfully muddled, or just muddy. The other side looks like the spiraling stripe is coming back despite my attempts to thwart it. Sigh.

Any opinions?

SAM 8 - August

2009-08-30T09:25:00.011-04:00

You know how sometimes you get a yarn and it just takes your breath away because it's so beautiful? This was one of those.

It's from Painted Yarns, in the Fall Birches colourway. It was extra special because it will never be available again -- the artist who painted it has passed away. I really did just want to put it in a bowl on the coffee table and look at it and love it forever.

That's what I should have done.

These socks have been on and off the needles for probably two years, trying out many different patterns. Nothing really brought out the true beauty of the colours. In the end, just to get them done, I resorted to my standard, old 6x2 rib.

I kind of feel like I cheated on them and didn't really give them their due, and that bothers me, but it was time to call enough and just get them finished. August socks, you're done.

In spinning news, I finished up the second installment of the Fat Cat Knits Mixed Blessings. This was a colourway called Hombre, and I loved the colours in both of the segments.

Inspired by what some of the other people had done with this, I decided to try to make a yarn that progresses from light to dark. I divided it up and put it into three piles, the first with just the lighter colour, the second with both and the third with just the darker.

I pre-drafted different lengths together through a diz in order to really blend the colours and give them a more tweedy look.

This was my first time spinning Falkland, and I loved it. Softer than BFL, with more grab than merino, it came out wonderfully fluffy. Spindle spun, wheel plied, it ended up at 296 yards, 8-9 wpi.

I'm quite pleased with the finished yarn. I think it wants to be a scarf ... or something.

Sacrificial Sheep

2009-08-22T10:29:00.012-04:00

Actually, no real sheep were sacrificed, but I did a good number of some of their wool. I dug through the stash to find something to use while playing with the new wheel. Sorry for all the pictures, but I did want to document the learning curve.

First up was some plain wool of some sort or other that was just sitting in a bag, origin lost in ancient history.

Scary, eh? Just getting used to treadling and drafting at the same time, trying out all the different whorls, etc. I think the part that got the hardest workout was the orifice hook. :-) And no, I did not bother to try to ply it.

So, time to get serious and try to make, you know, yarn or something. I dug even deeper and found something that I wouldn't mind wasting. I'm not even sure why I bought this in the first place, but it was there, so I figured I'd use it. I apologize in advance for any retinal damage this causes.

Yes, the colours really are as bad as they appear. But it served the purpose. That's four ounces of merino, in baby blue and searing orange. The bobbin on the left was first and, as you can see, I could barely fit two ounces on it. After a quick query on the Schacht list on Ravelry, and I received some wonderful advice about how to fit more on a bobbin. A few adjustments, it was winding on much tighter. It was worth trying to ply.

I couldn't figure out why my singles kept breaking, but it turns out there's a learning curve to using a lazy kate too. Don't put the tension too high or SNAP! After much cursing, I got some some crappy two ply and an attempt at chain plying. Thank you very much, virulent orange wool -- you've served your purpose and I'm glad you're out of the stash and never to be seen again.

Attempt number 3 turned out much better. Again, something that I wouldn't mind if it didn't turn out well.

The bobbins wound much better with the proper tension. However, if I had paid attention before I ripped the wool apart for a three-ply, I would have noticed that even though it is '70s wallpaper colours, the top was nicely dyed in a wonderful striping pattern and would have been perfect for a chain ply. I didn't see that until it was too late, so I stayed with the three-ply.

All four ounces plied, with room on the bobbin to spare. It's BFL in the Connor colourway from Squoosh. I didn't take a pic of the top because I didn't really think it would turn out, but the listing is here for those who like to compare the raw wool with the finished product.

It ended up at 242 yards, 11 wpi, so not too bad for a beginner yarn. It would have been better chained to keep the colours separate rather than mixed in the ply, but c'est la vie.

I still need to work on the plying part, as some of it is a bit loose. If I were going to use it for socks, I'd try running it through the wheel again, but since I don't, I won't.

Now I just have to work on getting it thin enough for sock yarn.

But I really should be knitting on my August socks instead of playing around. Time for another dose of self-discipline, methinks.

August update

2009-08-19T10:01:00.007-04:00

Whew, August is just speeding by. And then it slowed right down when summer finally arrived, with a boatload of heat and humidity. Or was that just me that slowed down? It's been a strange year.

I did manage to finish spinning a yarn I started back in July during the Tour de Fleece.

Yummy Australian Merino in the Thorny Devil colourway from Southern Cross Fibre. It probably won't surprise anyone that I again went for a three-ply sock yarn.

It ended up at 410 yards, 14 wpi, and should make some lovely, soft and warm socks.

And speaking of socks, I can't believe I still haven't finished my August socks for Sock-a-Month. I kind of got stalled and distracted. I finally decided to get rid of that old stationary bicycle that's been sitting in the corner for the last seven years. I only used it about four times in all that time, and I was getting tired of dusting it. But then I was left with an empty corner and, as they say, nature abhors a vacuum, so I had to fill it.

Yup, a spinning wheel! With curious cat shown, for scale. :-) I've played with it a bit, and as expected, my first bump was sort of disastrous, but we're slowly getting to know each other.

And because these things seem to be important to Ladybug people, here's the bug:

Goodbye, July.

2009-08-03T20:27:00.026-04:00

I can't say I'm sad to see the end of July. It's been one of the coldest, wettest, grayest Julys on record. Here's hoping that summer finally comes in August. :-)

One fun thing that did happen in July, though, was the Tour de Fleece on Ravelry! I was too busy spinning to get any more knitting done this month, but I did manage to finish a few more yarns, plus try a couple of different fibres and techniques.

This was spun from a Luscious Ditty mini-batt from Spin, Knit and Life -- merino, silk and alpaca. My first successful yarn with silk, and first time using a Turkish spindle for more than just goofing around. The cool thing about a Turkish spindle is that when you're done, you just pull out the shaft and the legs of the spindle and you're left with a centre-pull ball and can ply with both ends of your single. It's not my favourite method, and I had a few problems with it towards the end, but it was good to try it.

I was feeling a bit brave after that, so I thought I'd try spinning just straight silk again for the Challenge Day.

Not so good. I think silk and I will agree to disagree for a while longer. :-)

I decided to carry on with trying a few more new techniques. A post or two ago, I showed a three-ply sock yarn that I made for the May/June All Spun Up Spin-a-long. It looked like this:

I had an extra four ounces of fibre, so I thought I'd try to recreate some of the yarns that other people had made. First, I played with chain plying. It's not as hard as I thought, as long as you take your time. It's a technique you can use to keep the colours more separate. I'm still not convinced that it's suitable for sock yarn, but I have to admit it's pretty. Maybe scarf material?

One of the yarns that really intrigued me was a thick and thin thread ply, so I figured, eh, why not try that?

It's actually kind of hard to do on a spindle, and the thread is slippery stuff to ply with. My thick parts ended up a little bit too thick, and I'd like to try it again going a bit thinner. I do like the look of it, but again, I'm not sure that I'd knit with it or what I'd make. It was interesting, though, to see the different effects you can get with the same fibre, just by spinning it differently.

After that, I figured it was time to get back to basics .. sock yarn. :-)

This is mixed BFL, again from All Spun Up.

I went for a standard three-ply.

It ended up at 410 yards. It should make some wonderful socks, and I loves it muchly. :-)

And that was the end of the Tour de Fleece. Whew!

I apparently have more of an ornery streak than I thought I did. Being forced to spin actually really made me want to knit, so I've been cranking away, trying to finish up my August socks. One's done, and the other is cast on. Maybe a finish by the end of the week?

A-long alonging

2009-07-12T09:57:00.010-04:00

As I'd hoped, the slight pressure to get stuff resulting from joining a KAL or some-such has resulted in, well, getting stuff done.

This colours in this gorgeous yarn from All Spun Up re-kindled a yarn lust that I haven't felt for quite a while. I had to have it, and I had to knit it as soon as it arrived. Joining Sock-a-Month 8 helped keep the knitting from languishing and actually made me knit both socks. :-)

Plain socks, in a fantastic colourway, but a finished pair! Hurrah!! Mojo, are you back? Only time will tell.

The fact that I was able to finish the socks while participating in the Tour de Fleece on Ravelry kind of gives me hope that I can do both spinning and knitting. I mean, that was kind of my intention before the spinning took over.

And speaking of the Tour de Fleece, I managed to turn this ....

.... into this:

It's merino from Fat Cat Knits, in the Seaside Cottage colourway. I signed up for a three-month subscription so I would push myself outside of my normal colour range, and this certainly did the trick.

I was trying to spin it thicker and ended up with 306 yards at 11 wpi, which is on the thin side of worsted weight but not too bad.

Definitely a happy mix of colours!

Ready for Summer

2009-06-27T09:46:00.004-04:00

It took a while, but I finally finished spinning up the fibre from the All Spun Up May/June Spin-a-Long -- a lovely superwash merino in watery, bluesy-greeny colours.

It is so much fun to see how everyone spins up the same colourway in different ways. There are so many gorgeous yarns out there. Of course, me being me, I just went with a standard old three-ply sock yarn.

I'm quite pleased with the way it came out. I ended up with 453 yards at 16 wpi -- perfect for a pair of socks!

It should knit up into subtle, monochromatic stripes, although you never really know until you actually knit it.

And speaking of knitting, the stitches continue to fly off the needle at breakneck speed! The sock that didn't have a heel two weeks now has a heel!

The craziness at work has settled down for the next two months, so I should have a bit more free time to knit. Now that I've joined Sock a Month 8, I'm also hoping to be a bit more motivated, but there is also that darn Tour de Fleece thing going on too. And tomorrow is spinning class. Hmmmm. I think I need a time management expert to come in and schedule my hobbies for me. If they do windows and clean bathrooms while they're at it, that's all the better. :-)

Breaking Outta the Rut

2009-06-14T12:00:00.007-04:00

I seem to be in a rut. Well, not seem to be ... I am in a rut. A deep one. It's time to do something about it.

A while ago I was ~~trying to move around~~ tidying the stash room and happened to notice that, ummm, I seem to have a lot of blue, and brown, and green. One of the things I enjoy most about spinning is watching the colours mix and change as the fiber flows by. Although I'm still more likely to wear the blue/brown/green, there's no reason I have to actually wear the yarn I make; right? When I saw that Fat Cat Knits had started a fibre club called Mixed Blessings, I figured it was just the kick in the pants I needed. Each month, for three months, you get five oz. of fibre, but the catch is that it's in two different but coordinating colourways.

So, is this me?

How about this?

And when you put them together?

I'm really looking forward to playing with it, although I have absolutely no idea what it will end up being, if anything.

If that's not enough of a shake-up, how about this? I've signed up for a class. Yes, out there with real people and everything. For a socio-phobe like me, that's just about a nervous breakdown in the making. :-) What could possibly coerce me into such foolishness? A local yarn store is offering a spindle class with some different techniques, such as long draw, how to spin silk, and who knows what else. It will be fun; right?

The knitting, it continues. I've knit my fingers to the bone and produced .....

.... one sock leg. Sigh. Time to kick that up a notch too. I used to at least get one pair done every month, back when I was in the Sock-a-Month Knitalong. SAM 8 starts in July, so I joined up. One of the good things about this series is that you don't have to start the socks in that month, just finish them, so it should be good motivation for finishing up some of my WIPs.

I did a bit of round-up and ended up with this:

A box of bags. In six months' time, I'm hoping they'll be EMPTY bags. :-)

Why do I need a title?

2009-06-06T16:03:00.008-04:00

Thanks to Battlestar Galactica Season 2.5 (what's up with that?), I got a bit of knitting done.

Noro Silk Garden, Colour No. 8, blues, greens, purples .... yummm.

This is the second time that I've run out of yarn. Luckily Noro just recycles the same colours in different combinations and I could use some leftovers to finish it up.

Can you tell which end I had to doctor?

I also finished plying the Enchanted Knoll Red Silk Kimono yarn.

As I was spinning it, I didn't really worry about how thick or thin it was; I just let it do its thing.

It ended up at about 136 yards, 12 wpi, and very textural and sparkly.

I'm surprised at how much I enjoyed the sparkles, and I might even have decided what I'll knit with it. But for now, I think I'll go out and enjoy some sunshine.

I have no clever title

2009-05-24T10:36:00.004-04:00

It seems there's a large preference for Google Reader over Bloglines -- thanks for the recommendation, everyone! Just as comments were coming in on my last post complaining about missing blogs, Bloglines decided to pull one of those, "Oh, by the way, so-and-so has 200 new posts" dealies, so I made the switch. Google Reader is kind of wonky, as in what's up with alphabetizing blogs that begin with the word "the" under T, but I can live with that.

Last time I removed my blogroll from my sidebar, I got a few emails of ... concern ... that it had disappeared. I have spent over six hours trying to reinstate it from Google Reader, and it keeps screwing up. I'd rather spend my time doing other things, so my best advice at this point would be, "Get your own blogroll." :-)

I've been knitting a bit, thanks to Battlestar Galactica Season 2.

Noro Silk Garden No. 241A, a lovely mix of mostly greens and purples.

Yum!

I finished spinning the red sparkly stuff I was working on, but I have started plying it yet. That hasn't stopped me from starting to spin something else, though.

This is superwash merino, the May/June spin-a-long from All Spun Up. Greeny blues with a bit of white and rust, drafts like butter -- love it!

At least I'm consistent

2009-05-17T09:13:00.002-04:00

So, you know how when a bunch of things go wrong, and then something goes right and you think the string of wrong is gone? That's not what happened. The wrong continues. It's kind of reassuring to know that my place in the universe is secure.

See, I've been knitting a secret sock, and it's coming along just smashingly. Very cool pattern, easy to remember, no charts to be glued to, just read your knitting and keep on going round and round. It even has a different construction technique than I've been used to -- toe up and a wonderful invisible gusset to help make the short row heel fit better.

And then the pattern is released, and I want to show you some pics of how wonderful it is, and then my camera decided, "Umm, nope. You can have this ONE pic and I am going to keep all the rest for myself." And it steadfastly refuses to release its hostages, even though I talked nicely and told him what a nice camera he was and offered to buy him ice cream. Ummm, nope. No go.

So, you get what I got. That's most of one sock. I'm sure my camera will eventually decide to cooperate, and I'm sure I'll actually knit the second sock, so I'll wait until the stars are realigned to do a proper FO post. In the meantime, you can see wonderful pictures of two socks here and you can download the pattern here. It's even free! Go for it -- you'll like it! Thank you, Bea, for sharing your wonderful creativity!

Any one else use Bloglines? Notice anything wonky? Like, it's eating people and won't let you see them? Kinda like my camera? Look over to the right? See that list of blogs? Way down near the bottom there should be someone that I've been reading for, like, forever. And all of a sudden she's gone! Not on that list, not on my list of subscriptions on Bloglines -- just gone. But when I try to re-subscribe, Bloglines says, "Hey, you're already subscribed to that blog." Sigh. There could very well be others that have been invisiblized, but I read enough that it's hard to keep track. If Wendy Knits and Bloglines doesn't see it, is she actually really knitting?

Still here ... barely

2009-05-10T16:08:00.010-04:00

I don't know if I mentioned it before, but back at the beginning of the year I joined the Grafton Fibers ColorWays club. Every month, you get a big, fluffy batt of corriedale, died in wonderful colours and blended in interesting ways. I opened the first package and was totally petrified. The one time I'd used a batt before, I just grabbed handfuls of fiber and spun them together. Although you could use that technique with these, you'd lose the wonderful colour progressions. Yup, each batt so far has been carded so that the colours gradually shift from one end to the other. January went from red to turquoise and back to red, and February from red through yellow to blue, March from ultraviolet through blue and brown, and April from gold through green to burgundy. They have been gorgeous. Rather than end up the year with a stack of 12 nice neat boxes,, I decided it was time to just dive in.

I started with February. I must confess that none of these pictures accurately reflects the true colours. The original batt was sort of like this, but the red is way off, and it doesn't show much of the green:

I tore the batt into four sections length-wise, then pulled each section out width-wise into a tube (rolag?) and then dizzed them into a long strip (roving?).

To keep the colours true while spinning, I had two choices, either Navajo ply or singles. I did two chains of N-ply and got bored, so singles it was. :-)

One end of the yarn is red, some with a bit of brown. The yellow is gradually introduced, with some green, and it shades through blue with some black to clear blue.

Spinning a single is a bit scary, because normally the plies in a multi-ply yarn give it strength. In a single, you need enough twist to hold it together but not so much that it gets all kinky. I used a fairly heavy spindle -- my Bossie maxi --so I could try to keep my yarn thick. It took some planning to keep the colour progression so I had the right ends to join together as I built the total length. I finished it by alternating hot and cold washes, with a bit of agitation, to slightly felt it and give it some strength.

This picture shows the blue and green, but the red is off.

In this one, the red is right, but the blue and green are off. I'm not really a red person, but I do love this colour.

I ended up with about 175 yards, 10 WPI, of the softest, fluffiest yarn I've made so far.

I'm thinking it wants to be a scarf, probably like the Noro striped one that's very popular, but I haven't quite decided if I want to match it with some plain black or maybe wait to see if another batt later in the year will coordinate with it. I think I'll just pet it for a while. :-)

I finally finished a pair of socks.

I posted about these before and how much I was NOT enjoying them. The yarn is Regia Kaffe Fassett, and when I bought it, I thought I was getting the striped variety. Turns out I must have been distracted by some other nearby pretty and reached into the wrong bin and got -- whatever that is. I was determined to finish them, though, because I was in one of those "Next time you go yarn shopping, remember to check the bin!" self-improvement masochistic modes. A good way to just get through something that isn't appealing? Rent a couple of DVDs and just sit and knit and don't look at them. I have Battlestar Galactica Season to thank for getting these done. I hadn't seen any Battlestar before, and it looks to be a good series. I still kind of hate the socks, though.

With those two projects done, it was time to start another. It's been very busy at work, and stressful, and I've been generally grumpy and tired. But every time I pick this up, I can't help but smile a bit. If the red and purple sparkles don't do it, the spindle itself certainly does.

It's batts from Enchanted Knoll Farm, Red Silk Kimono colourway, being spun on my Tilt-a-Whorl drain strainer spindle. Big fun, and I have absolutely no idea what I will do with the finished yarn, and I don't really care. :-)

Turning the corner, or around the bend?

2009-04-08T12:05:00.006-04:00

From Fiber Optic, Foot Notes pencil roving, 80% superwash merino/20% nylon, in the Dark Coffee colourway .... yummmm.

Should be perfect for socks. Spins up smoothly and easily.

Makes a beautiful yarn.

I love how the colours play in 3-ply.

Unfortunately, this project is a bit of a failure. The yarn came out feeling drapey instead of bouncy, perhaps because of the superwash. The bigger problem, tho, is that I likely enjoyed watching the beautiful colours too much and wasn't really paying attention. It's the most even I've been able to spin yet, but I ended up with only 209 yards. The WPI is either 17 or 12, depending on my mood when I measure it. :-) I'm quite disappointed, because I was really looking forward to knitting up these colours into some socks. They would have been glorious. Sigh.

So, spinning didn't work out the way I wanted it to, and the knitting was bleh. Time to re-group. In a comment to a previous post, Alwen suggested that one good way to get the knitting groove back is to put aside the projects that are annoying and do something completely different. In her case, the "different" was a Nielbing doily. I'm not quite that desparate. :-) Instead, I'm going to use this:

And in an even more radical departure, I'm doing this.

Yes, it's a toe. Are the two related? Maybe, maybe not.

Green Tailed Jay

2009-03-30T10:36:00.004-04:00

Still no knitting to show, since there's still no knitting going on to show (although the bug has now nibbled and I'm feeling the itch), but I did finish a spinning project that's been in the works for a while now.

I'd taken out a three-month membership in the Butterfly Girl Designs spindle and fibre club, and this was the first batt I received. It's in her Green Tailed Jay colourway, a mix of one-third black merino, one-third green merino, and one-third green bamboo. There's more black than appears in the picture below and the colour is a bit off, but it's the best I could do to capture the shine of the bamboo. The spindle I started with was a Ledbetter with a lacewood whorl, .95 oz., although I later switched to a Bossie.

I liked all the colourways I received in this club so much that I actually went back and ordered a double dose of each one that I'd received: Buyer beware. :-)

This was my first time spinning from a batt, and it was quite interesting. Not exactly relaxing, more so ... absorbing. Each fibre drafted out differently and it was difficult to keep the singles even, so much so that I eventually gave up and went for "even enough." The green merino felt what I could consider to be normal, the black merino wanted to be extra floofy, and the bamboo was sticky and slippery and wanted to be very, very skinny. It took a lot of park and draft to play with it. It was kind of like one of those video games that sucks you in and you play and play and play and next thing you know, hours have disappeared.

I ended up with 470 yards from 6 oz., about 400 of which came out to 20 wpi and 70 yards at one end about 25 wpi. I'm not sure what happened there. I know that I drafted some from the end and then switched to spinning from the fold, as I seemed to get a better mix of the fibres that way, but one end of the skein is definitely different and I don't think the difference is all attributable to that.

In the end, I'm happy enough with it, although it is really hard to get a picture that shows the shine and drape from the bamboo. The finished yarn has a nice shimmer and hand to it, but I'm wondering if the colour differences might be too much for lace. A swatch is the only way to tell for sure.

So, where did I leave my knitting needles?

Up and Down

2009-03-21T10:57:00.011-04:00

First, the Up.

I participated in the March/April Spin-along in the All Spun Up Ravelry group. Kristin's fibres and colours are always gorgeous, but this time around was a particular favourite of mine -- lovely, soft BFL that looked like this:

Double Yum!

I don't very often knit with worsted weight, but for some reason I've had a goal of spinning it, two-ply. No, I don't know why, and no, it doesn't matter. Spindles generally want to spin thinner yarns, and since my first awkward attempts, I've just gone thinner and thinner. This time, though, I made it thick.

I find spinning thickly to be difficult, so it's fairly uneven, but it averages 12 wpi. Despite my throwing fibre into the twist as quickly as I could, it still came out fairly dense and only 160 yards, but I think it will make wonderfully warm pair of mittens. I love these colours.

I am also amazed at how quickly it went. One evening per ply, and one evening to ply -- a finished yarn in three evenings.

I had meant to take a picture of the yarn on the spindle, but it went so quickly that I kind of forgot, so here's one of the spindle I used. It's a Forrester Dervish. It weighs 1.77 oz. The top whorl is hickory, the bottom whorl is Caribbean walnut, and the shaft is maple. I originally thought it would spin very fast, but it didn't. It was quite steady, though. I only mention it here so that the next time I get a hankering to make worsted weight, I know which tool to use.

So, now for the Down.

I mentioned in my last post that I've been suffering from a lack of knitting mojo, particularly as it relates to socks. Given the amount of sock yarn I have, this is rather distressing. I joined Sock Madness III in the hopes that it would give me the kick in the pants that I need to get back at it. The first pattern came out this week, and I duly cast on. Unfortunately, I'm just not feeling it. I've got the leg three-quarters done but have absolutely no desire to finish it. The inspiration behind the pattern is quite clever -- a quilt block translated into knits and purls. The heel is innovative -- an afterthought heel, but with a flap and gusset. The problem is that I don't think the pattern is translating well and the 32 stitch repeat is too big to read visually. To my eye, the sock just looks .... wrinkled. I obviously haven't knit it yet, but I'm pretty sure the flap will end up too short for my foot, and the gusset is to be decreased over only four rounds so I'm pretty sure it won't fit properly on my high instep. I hate dissing on people who volunteer their time and effort to organize and participate in all these wonderful "alongs," because I do think they are a wonderful thing that help build the knitting community. That is not my intention here. Neither do I mean to denigrate any one particular pattern -- everyone has their own likes and dislikes, and it's a very personal thing. Really -- it's me, not you.

Confession time: I've already got nine "trouble" socks sitting here. Yes, nine - 9! You know, the ones that don't quite work out the way you thought they would, or the yarn didn't work with the pattern, or whatever. You put them aside to cogitate on them or to wait for the right pattern to pop up, start something else in the mean time, and there they sit. If it were one pair, I'd chuck it and call it good, but nine? I can't do that. I'm tired of doing this to myself. It's draining. I have to do something with these, finish them up and move on. With the Sock Madness sock, it feels like I'm just doing it again. Argggh. I also have three singleton socks that I'm quite happy with, but they all involve sitting in front of a chart. That's fine when you're in the mood for that, but when you're not, it's also ... arrrgh.

I'm dropping out of Sock Madness. I apologize if I took someone else's spot and they really wanted to get in. It looks like I was the second-last person out of 200 to sign up, so I don't think there was a waiting line, but just in case you were trying and didn't get in, I'm sorry. I won't do it again. I'll add the yarn from those socks to the pile of "what do I do with it now" stuff, and get back to plodding through the ugly socks I mentioned in my last post. I figured they were so ugly that no pattern would save them, so I'm just knitting them plain. Maybe I'll go rent a couple of movies so I don't have to look at them while I knit them.

Speaking of which, some people wanted proof that they really were ugly. Well, here you go:

See? Ug-ell-ee.

Feeling not productive

2009-03-16T18:37:00.003-04:00

I think I jinxed myself by commenting in my last post that I was getting things done. Turns out that working 12-14 hours a day the last couple weeks has the opposite effect. Go figger, eh? Not much time for blogging, and not much time for doing anything worth blogging about.

Still knitting. Working on a pair of socks -- slowly and sporadically. They're UG-LY. I wonder why I keep forcing myself to finish them instead of just chucking them. I'll have to keep that in mind as a topic for another post. Despite my dismal performance last year, I did sign up for Sock Madness again this year, in the hopes that it would revive the mojo, but now I'm afraid it will just bog it down even more. Guess we'll see what happens.

Still spindling. I actually have one yarn that's ready to be plied, and will likely finish another one this evening. Then I just have to ply. More about that when they're done.

So, why am I posting when I have really nothing to say? Well, I received an email the other day that I thought was pretty clever, so I asked for, and received, permission to share with you. So I am. It's a way to do the garterlac dishcloth that doesn't involve a cast-on. The following text and photo are courtesy and copyright of blogless Jane. Thank you, Jane!

I love your garterlac dishcloth. I make lots of dishcloths for gifts, and this has become one of my favorites.

I have found many loose cast-ons that work well but then I thought, why have a cast-on row? Here is a change I tried that is pretty neat:

Wind off enough yarn to knit the three top triangles and don’t break it. (I actually knit 8 rows of 25 stitches each, which will always be enough.) With scrap yarn, crochet a chain of about 32 to 35 stitches.

With the dischcloth yarn, knit an increasing side triangle. Pick up 8 stitches on the chain and knit the square. Skip 3 or 4 stitches on the chain and pick up 8 more for the next square. Skip 3 or 4 stitches on the chain and pick up 8 stitches for the decreasing side triangle.

On this first row, everywhere the pattern says SKP, just K1. Then finish the dishcloth to the end. Turn it around, and using the yarn that was wound off, knit another top row. As you get to each shape, pull out the crochet and pick up the stitches that the chain was holding.

This results in a cloth with 90-degree rotational symmetry. Yes, it’s just a dishcloth; but I am the Anal Knitter.

Thank you for sharing your great patterns.

Feeling Productive

2009-02-22T12:50:00.011-05:00

I finally finished spindling the merino top from The Arts at Eagle's Find, in the Leaves and Stones colourway, that I started way back in December.

Plying seemed to take forever, but I did it in stages and that seemed to help. I tried a different way of wrapping the yarn around my plying spindle. I kept more weight on the bottom, and more open space at the top for twirling, and that seemed to make it easier. Not faster, just easier.

While spinning it, I tried to concentrate on keeping it even. Once my fingers got used to the merino, it just kind of flowed. I put a bit less twist into the singles and bit more into the plying, and I like the result -- it's much softer and bouncier.

Even though it's mostly shades of browns, it was a lot of fun to watch the colours slowly meld into each other. I'll be watching for more semi monochromatics.

End result: about 600 yards, 24 wpi - laceweight!

I was hoping for enough for a shawl, but I don't think it's quite there. Maybe a large-ish scarf? Haven't quite decided.

I also finished another Kaleidoscope.

This is Silk Garden No. 217. Again, no knots in either skein.

What a fun colourway -- me likes it lots.

Mirage

2009-02-14T09:18:00.005-05:00

According to Oxford, one definition of "mirage" is "something illusory."

The brief meltdown we had this week was just the illusion of the coming spring, a taste, a teaser, but still, a welcome reprieve during a cold and difficult winter. The illusion of spring was further enhanced by knitting my spring-coloured handspun into a nifty new scarf.

The pattern is Mirage (free on Ravelry) and it worked wonderfully with this heavy fingering weight and limited yardage. It's knit on the bias so the stripes go diagonally, with ruching for extra texture, and, bonus for a thinner scarf, extra insulation factor.

This yarn was much nicer to knit up than my last batch. It actually felt soft and bouncy. I didn't block the final result, as I liked the texture so much. Final dimensions, 6.5 in x 60 in - pefect.

Yes, it's maybe a bit foo-foo, and the colours just a titch loud, but I delighted in wearing it this week. Even if it isn't spring yet, I felt spring-like, especially compared to the black and navy crowd that seems so prevalent and .... dreary.

Lessons learned

2009-02-02T16:46:00.008-05:00

They started with this beautiful BFL top from All Spun Up.

I've already posted about spinning it and plying it, which took, frankly, what seemed like forever.

But I think it was worth it.

I've learned that even if your yarn is a bit overspun and crunchy, it's still worthwhile knitting. Knitting will cover a multitude of sins, and you can cut out the worst parts. But next time, don't strangle it.

I've learned that handspun knits up a bit more sturdy than it looks, as the yarn is denser, so you can't just look at it and guess at a needle size. If you do, chances are that you'll have to rip it back and start over.

I've learned that my normal method of making matching socks by matching row counts doesn't really work when the yarn is uneven. I've also learned that I can live with one cuff being slightly shorter than the other. :-)

I've learned that handspun is warmer than commercial yarn. This is a good thing, since it's still the middle of winter.

I've learned that I still LOVE the Fleegle heel -- perhaps more than is healthy.

I've learned that even if it appears that a colour is disappearing when you're spinning it up, it can resurface in subtle ways and enhance the other colours -- witness the beautiful blue that's not apparent at first glance.

I've learned I love spinning sock yarn and knitting up socks with that yarn.

Purple -- it's a good thing

2009-01-24T10:36:00.010-05:00

Yummmm, I love blues and browns and greens.

Who knew they were even better with a shot of purple?

Silk Garden 245. This was the first time neither skein had a knot. It was the second time I ran out of yarn at the end. Good thing Noro just keeps using the same colours over again in different combinations and I was able to throw in a scrap from another one to finish off the end.

Totally loving the purple.

Which is a good thing, because I was also working on this.

Impulse of Delight sock yarn in the Crocus colourway. If you don't follow Ruth's blog to watch how how she develops her colourways, you should - it's very cool.

It's also very cool and windy and wintery outside, so my not-very -successful attempt at an outside FO shot lasted about 30 seconds before I chickened out and went back inside. Those white speckles in the photo are snow, not lint. :-)

Apparently I need bigger windowsills.

Simple 6x2 rib, Sherman heel. Totally loving the purples.

Out with a Bang

2009-01-10T11:59:00.011-05:00

Except now that I think about it more, the old year didn't really leave with a bang -- it was more of a DRIP DRIP WHUMP, which was the sound of the ceiling of my computer room falling down just before Christmas on account of a water leak from outside my condo. Yes, they fixed it.

There may also have been a GACK GACK BLETCH, which was the sound of a sick cat who required an emergency trip to the vet on New Year's Eve. Yes, he's all better now.

There may also have been some GURGLE GURGLE GURGLE, which was the sound of my own intestinal disturbances on account of some bug or other. Yes, it's also better now.

Let's hope that's the end of the noise and the new year progresses a little more quietly.

Throughout all that, I did manage to keep myself busy with a bit of fibre.

That's some BFL in the Caramel Apple colourway from Moonlight Baker/Hungry for Handspun.

The colours were perfect for spinning while the snow, and more snow, and yet more snow, fell from the skies.

I was again aiming for a two-ply worsted weight, but I again didn't quite make it. It' about 277 yards, 15 wpi, so right between fingering and sport. Not quite what I was going for, but quite nice nonetheless.

My knit mojo seems to be on vacation, but thanks to the rental of a couple of movies, I was able to finished another Kaleidoscope.

Silk Garden, in what I thought was No. 258. However, according to Ravelry, the last one was 258, so I've managed to mix up the ball bands and have no idea what this one really is.

ETA: It's most likely 228 -- thanks, Judy!!

Whatever it is, it's kind of a nondescript colourway -- mostly greens and browns, with a bit of orange and red and blue.

Nap time. Ciao. :-)

Winter is here :-(

2008-12-21T14:31:00.012-05:00

Warning -- lots of pictures! It's snowing and blowing and generally being miserable outside, so what's a guy to do but stay inside and play with a camera? Right? RIGHT? Right. Sigh.

So, I am pleased to announce that I have finished a hat. Which to many of you, I realize, doesn't seem like a big deal, except that I started this hat a year ago. Yes, it sat on the needles for a whole year. But it's done now, and I love it. It's warm and cozy and it covers my ears, which is a good thing.

You can see exactly where I left off last year. I should have gone back and ripped out a round or two, but I didn't, and I'm not going to because I am embracing the rustic. Yes, rustic. That's what it is -- it's rustic, not sloppiness. Rustic, yes. The pattern is the very clever Thorpe, and the yarn is a bulky Alpaca labelled Vintage 2006 that I got from Bridget in the Knitters Tea Swap 4. Thanks again, Bridget! I left off the crochet edging and braidy-tie thingys -- not because I'm too lazy to figure out how to do them but because it's RUSTIC! Ahem.

I also knit up my handspun from the previous post -- and I know you don't want to be bothered with scrolling down so I'll throw in yet another picture --

-- into this ...

... which I admit looks kind of weird until you turn it upside down and roll it up a bit into this:

Which still looks kind of weird, but Yes! It's another hat! Just a basic top down toque, as we call it up here in Canada, although some people elsewhere might call it a watch cap. I made the turn-over especially long so it would fold over and cover my ears, which I think I mentioned is a good thing.

I tried to take some pics of this hat actually on my head, but all I got was something like this ...

... or this ...

So that's what you get too. Sigh.

I've also been spindling a bit.

It's a "mystery roving" that came with a spindle I purchased from Dragoncraft, and I thought it particularly fitting to the season because it reminded me of snow. It's a mixture of merino, bamboo, soysilk and angelina, and it came out very soft and shiny and, well, sparkly.

See? Sparkly. I didn't think I was an "art yarn" type of person, but I will admit it was fun to let it be what it wanted to be. I have no idea what to do with it, though. It's maybe DK weight, 150 yards.

More sparkles! I wish all sparkly white stuff was that much fun and didn't require shovelling. I also wish everyone out there a safe and happy holiday season!

Has it stopped snowing yet? Sigh.

Kaleidoscope # 5

2008-12-07T11:08:00.012-05:00

With the completion of the Christmas knitting (yes, I'm rubbing it in!), it's time to get back to some projects that have been sitting for a bit, patiently waiting their turn.

Silk Garden No. 258.

This colourway apparently has every colour ever invented by Noro.

In the Other News Department -- a loose end:

Yikes!! I completely forgot to mention something cool about the Moonlight shawl. It's one of those patterns that looks nice from either side. This is good when you're giving something to a non-knitter and you're afraid they might wear it inside-out. Here's the side that I forgot to include in the last post.

There, full disclosure. I feel much better now. :-)

And in the spindling department, I turned this:

into this:

The sock yarn I finished last month is being knit up as we speak, but I'm not completely happy with it. It's knit-able, but more, um, crisp than soft, so I think that means I over-spun it. This time around I concentrated on keeping the singles a bit looser. I also wanted to make a thicker yarn. The sock yarn singles were about 40 wpi, and for a two-ply worsted weight, the singles should be about 24 wpi. Trying to increase the size of the single is ... interesting. Your hands get used to a certain motion, and you really have to work at making them do something else. The finished yarn isn't completely even, but it's much softer. At 266 yards, it ended up being a light worsted weight.

I've also been working on plying tighter.

All in all, I'm happy with it. So, what shall it be? Scarf or hat? Hmmm.

Round and Round

2008-11-30T10:18:00.005-05:00

I can't believe it's only the end of November and I've already finished my Christmas knitting. That's never happened before. :-)

I had originally bought some Dream in Color Smooshy in the Giant Peach colourway to knit another Jeanie, but when I received it, I knew I wouldn't be able to use it to knit something that would take that long. The colour just didn't appeal to me. I received the skein of Wooly Wonka Hand Dyed Silk Lace as part of the Change of Seasons Lace Club and didn't particularly care for the pattern, and the yarn was a bit too vivid for my tastes. When I went to throw them both in the stash and they ended up beside each other, I knew they were meant for each other, and that together, they were meant for my mother, who loves pink, peach and salmon tones.

I decided to do the Moonlight Sonata pattern, because I thought the stitch pattern would be strong enough to hold its own against two variegated yarns. I think it worked out quite well.

The silk livens up the pastel Smooshy, and the Smooshy tones down the silk. I didn't block it hard, because it was already just about large enough. The whole thing has a warm glow to it and feels wonderfully soft, especially after blocking.

I hope my mom likes it!

Digging in

2008-11-19T10:51:00.005-05:00

If you keep at it, it will get done eventually.

I finally finished plying the sock yarn I've been working on.

I hope it's enough for a pair of socks.

All other knitting has been put aside to finish some holiday knitting. Row by row, the crinkly-wrinkly-peachy-pinky continues to slowly grow.

Remember when I used to actually finish something? Hmmm, I don't - LOL!

Bea's Vs

2008-11-09T10:32:00.014-05:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been working on a test knit for Bea, and since it's now been released, I can share it with you!

Totally cool! It's called V-stripe, and the Vs are formed by cables that move gently down the cuff and flow into the heel flap and foot. Here's a shot of the cuff and top of the foot.

And here's the back of the leg and the heel flap.

The flap is ribbed, and a detail I particularly liked is the gusset,which is also ribbed.

The pattern is available, in four sizes, either directly from Bea's site or from Ravelry.

I quite like the yarn I used. It's a semi-solid, which slightly striped on the cuff and then softly mottled on the foot.

It's from Tannis Fiber Arts, and the colourway is called Orange Blossom.

She has a lot of very nice semi-solids, and the yarn has a substantially squishy feel to it and wonderful stitch definition. Even though I've put a hiatus on sock yarn buying, I might have gone back to get some more in different colours. :-)

Mucho Exciting Mail

2008-11-07T18:31:00.005-05:00

I've been busy knitting away, and I'm just about finished something, but I can't show you what it is yet. Luckily for me, my mailman has also been very busy lately, so I can show you that.

Norma has been spearheading donations for the Red Scarf project, and part of her enticement for donating were some fabulous prize drawings. I was lucky enough to win a copy of the brand spanking new Mason-Dixon 2 and the yarn for one of the fabulous projects therein -- woo hoo!!

Can't quite tell what's in the shiny bags?

Yumm! Kidsilk Haze, for the Plaid wrap!! I've heard tell it's an addictive little bit of fuzz, so I'm almost scared to touch it. Thanks very much, Norma, and thank you to your lovely and talented assistant Paula, and thank you to the wonderful ladies at Mason-Dixon for supporting such a great cause!

I also received a wonderful gift from Bea, the talented designer for whom I test knit the Cross and Meet socks a while ago.

A sock blank she dyed especially for me!

Very cool -- totally my colours, and it should knit up into a great looking pair of socks. Thank you very much, Bea!

It just may be that Bea has a wonderful, new pattern coming out soon, and that just may be the reason I don't have any knitting that I can show you. But you didn't hear it here, mkay? :-)

B&W BFF

2008-10-31T20:34:00.008-04:00

I'm one of the worst KALers; not only did I do nothing for Socktoberfest, but I didn't even sign up for it. I did sign up for Sock Knitters Anonymous for September and barely scraped up a finish.

One of the options this month was a pattern by Cookie A. I'd wanted to do the BFF pattern for a long time, and this seemed like an opportune time to take it from a "want" to a "done", and "done" they are, on the very last day. Still, done is done; right?

The yarn is Koigu KPPPM in Colour 312. It was, as usual, a joy to work with, and I am quite pleased with how well the colours let the cables show. I would have been even more pleased if I hadn't run out of yarn and had to scrounge up another skein.

I did substitute in a Fleegle heel, though, because I like it.

In the Other News Department, I special ordered a spindle from SpinSanity, and Shannon came through for me with flying colours. It's a bottom whorl, in a rubbed, antique-y blue. It's wonderfully balanced and spins perfectly. The icing on the cake was that Shannon gifted it to me. I think she's trying to feed my budding spindling addiction in payback for causing her a slight case of garterlac obsession. I'm a willing victim.

The fiber is merino from Eagle's Find Fiber in the Leaves and Stones colourway, and it's spinning up into a wonderful, golden-hued single that I'm hoping to Andean ply into lace weight. This is the first time I've tried merino, and it takes a bit of getting used to. It's easy to draft, but not so easy to draft evenly because it's so spongy and stretchy. I keep telling myself it's just part of the learning curve, and I'm not actually minding having to practise at all. :-)

Mystic Earth - Clue 1

2008-10-16T09:34:00.011-04:00

Clue 3 of the Mystic Earth KAL came out this week. I, being on the slow side, have just finished Clue 1. The shawl is what I would call sampler style, meaning that there are panels of different stitch patterns, each within a box of eyelets. Although that's not my favourite type of design, it does mean that just when you start to get a bit bored, you start doing something altogether different. For someone like me whose attention tends to wander with bigger projects, this is probably a good thing.

The shawl theme was also revealed this week. There are four panels, with each one representing a season. Clue 1 is Spring, with a waving leaf motif, meant to symbolize the emergence of budding growth.

The construction has been fun. You first knit the bottom border, and then turn it on its side and pick up stitches along the straight edges for the body of the shawl. I admit that I was a bit scared of that at first. Even though at times it seemed like I was doing it more by feel than by sight, I think it came out alright.

The edging on the sides is then knit along with the main pattern.

It's an interesting pattern, with just enough wrong side row action to keep you awake. The waves are created by K2togs and SSKs and YOs, but you then purl into the back of the YOs on the return rows to close them up. The only YOs that remain are those within the leaves.

I apologize for the crappy photos -- it appears that my camera will have trouble with this colour. The top photo is the most accurate, but it's more vibrant in real life.

Clue 2 is Summer and looks to be more complicated than Clue 1 -- don't expect to see it soon. :-)

In the Other News Department, spindling continues. I finally managed to create a three-ply sock weight with the last little bit of the practice roving that came with my learn to spin kit. It knits up nicely at 10 sts/in on 2.0 mm needles.

That means it's time to try to maintain it long enough to make enough for some actual socks.

I love my new spindle. It's made of mesquite, walnut and maple, and the inset is jasper - a Ledbetter from Ball and Skein. The roving is from All Spun Up. Again, this is taking a while, so don't expect to see finished socks any time soon.

Yes, I'm practising patience. I think it's a good thing. Probably.

Ten Years

2008-10-05T23:46:00.003-04:00

I usually try to stick to my knitting here, as I view this space as a little corner of my world that is safe and free from all the stresses of everyday life. This week, though, I am reminded again of just how unsafe and unfree life really is out there in the real world..

This upcoming week marks the 10th anniversary of the murder of Matthew Wayne Shepard. Matthew was a gay American student at the University of Wyoming who was was robbed, pistol whipped, tortured, tied to a fence in a remote, rural area, and left to die near Laramie on the night of October 6 – October 7, 1998. He died from severe head injuries at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, on October 12, 1998.

Matthew suffered a fracture from the back of his head to the front of his right ear. He had severe brain stem damage, which affected his body's ability to regulate heart rate, body temperature and other vital signs. There were also about a dozen small lacerations around his head, face and neck. His injuries were deemed too severe for doctors to operate. He never regained consciousness and remained on full life support.

The disturbing and brutal nature of Matthew Shepard's murder prompted calls for new legislation addressing hate crime, urged particularly by those who believed that Shepard was targeted on the basis of his sexual orientation. Under current United States federal law and Wyoming state law, crimes committed on the basis of sexual orientation are not prosecutable as hate crimes.

The Matthew Shepard Act (officially, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 or LLEHCPA), HR 1592 was a proposed federal bill that would expand the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.

The bill passed the Senate on September 27, 2007, as an amendment to the Defense Reauthorization bill. The cloture vote was 60 to 39 in favor. The amendment was then approved by voice vote. President Bush indicated he may veto the DoD authorization bill if it reaches his desk with the hate crimes legislation attached. Ultimately, the amendment was dropped by the Democratic leadership because of opposition from antiwar Democrats, conservative groups, and President George W. Bush.

Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden voted in favor of the legislation; Senator John McCain did not vote. However, in an interview with The Washington Blade regarding the Matthew Shepard Act, Senator McCain stated, "I have voted against the proposal several times".

The Campaign to Erase Hate is a program of the Matthew Shepard Foundation. It models the principles that were core to the beliefs and aspirations of Matthew Shepard. For more information, please visit the Matthew Shepard Foundation and Matthew's Place.

This is a knitting blog and not a place for politics, but I would like to again thank Myrna Stahman for caring enough to mark Matthew's death by designing two scarf patterns and sharing them with us.

Matthew, we have not forgotten.

Oh, look -- shiny!

2008-09-26T22:03:00.010-04:00

Yeah, I'm a bit behind the trend -- nothing unusual there -- but I finally got around to trying out one of the tencel blends. You know, the ones that make you say, "Oh, look -- shiny!!"

In this case, Shiny also happens to be the name of the yarn. It's from Twisted, in the Angst colourway, 50/50 superwash merino/tencel.

Shiny it is. Also, stripy it is.

I'd started these way back last spring and they sat around for a while. I finally picked them again this fall, ready for a heel. But, hmmm, what heel should I do?

It was about this time that Fleegle returned to the healthy. I took that as a sign that it was time to try her toe-up heel, but top down, of course. Luckily, it works beautifully either way. It's written for two circs, but translates easily to DPNs. Not only is it beautiful, but it is

no fuss, no muss
no flap, no wrap
and
no hole.

A thing of beauty indeed.

Easiest heel I've ever knit. Just a gusset, a very big heel turn and then a little piece of magic that completely eliminates that hole that can sometimes happen at the corner.

And how does it fit?

Perfectly. Thank you, Fleegle!

Unfortunately, I can't really say that I love the yarn. I like the colours, particularly that blue stripe that fades in and out, but the yarn felt kind of hard and plasticky. I'm hoping it softens up in the wash. It had a slight tendency to split, which was much more noticeable when doing increases and decreases. I have more of this blend in stash and will knit it up eventually, but I don't think I'll be getting any more.

In the Other News Department, I continue to practise my spindling, trying to get in 20 or 30 minutes every day. It really does make a difference, and I can see and feel the progress. My consistent spots are happening more, well, consistently.

It's still not as tight as I want it, but the size is right. I've been over-twisting the singles and then balancing when plying. I've received some very helpful advice from Micki (thanks, Micki!) to over-ply as well and then balance when setting the twist, so I'll be giving that a try this weekend. This spinning stuff is like a whole new world that I knew was out there but was successfully ignoring. I'm glad I've opened the door just a little bit, because it's been good for the mind and the hands to try something different.

Fall line-up

2008-09-21T12:58:00.006-04:00

Anna Dalvi, the talented designer of the Mystic series of shawls, has another one starting soon, this one called Mystic Earth. I thought I'd give it a try.

Here's sort of what the swatch looks like.

I say "sort of" because I've made three of them on different size needles and just can't get mine to come out the same size as hers. I've decided to go with one needle size up from what's shown above and call it good. I'm using a 50/50 wool/silk blend (probably Zephyr) dyed by Yarn Ahoy in a colourway called Spicy Pumpkin. (That's a sunbeam across the upper right, not a colourway thing.)

The KAL starts on September 30, so there's still time to join up, if you wish.

I've also been playing with my spindle. It's lots of fun. :-) I've tried Navajo plying and Andean plying, both of which satisfy the frugal Scot in me, and have just generally been enjoying it.

I did end up going for a lesson at one of the LYSs, which helped tremendously with my drafting. Here are the two ends of my latest endeavour, plied together, showing how much thinner and consistently I've been able to draft since the lesson.

And here's where I'm at now.

It's about 16 wpi, which is where I want to be, but I want to get from a two-ply down to a three-ply while keeping the same thickness. Must practice more.

Is Mercury in retrograde?

2008-09-13T11:57:00.003-04:00

Blahbitty blah blah blah.

Blech ... too tight. RIP!!

Blahbitty blah blah blah.

Ug-leeee. RIP!!

Blahbitty blah blah blah.

Is that fabric or armour? RIP!!

Blahbitty blah blah blah.

Grrrr, pattern totally lost in the variegation - RIP!!

Blahbitty blah blah blah.

Boring. BORING!! Rip!!!

Blahbitty blah blah blah.

Why do they call a yarn purple when it's really BROWN?? RIP!!!

Blahbitty blah blah blah.

Row 5 comes after Row 4 four, dude, not ROW 2 !! RIPP!

Blahbitty blah blah blah.

Sigh.

Be relieved there are no photos with this post.

Fickle

2008-09-01T12:41:00.004-04:00

I thought I'd best post before someone left a "Have you been abducted by aliens?" comment. It has been a while. My admiration for people who continue to post whilst working on large projects has grown incredibly. Me, I just wanted to keep on knitting.

It seems that if I put my mind to it, I can devote myself to one project. Well, except for those 10 rounds of a sock that I tried to sneak in and about which I felt guilty with every stitch, and then there was that one round that was for purely scientific research so it doesn't count.

Who knew that I could actually finish something that was larger than a sock? Certainly not me. And on time, too, I must say, with a certain degree of satisfaction. Ends woven in and blocked, all by the target date.

It does seem rather fitting, though, that despite nurturing her with positive energy and careful ministrations, then wooing her with soothing music and chocolate fumes while constantly remarking on her lovely colouration and beautiful form, the fickle FO is currently evading decent photography. She's a shy maiden, this Jeanie.

I hope to get decent modeled shots and a proper FO post once she has made her way to the intended recipient. She's kept me good company for nearly two months, and I will be sad to see her go.

I found that one good way to motivate myself to keep knitting seemingly endless rows of ribbing was a bit of bribery. The "carrot at the end of the stick" routine seems to work equally well for donkeys and knitters.

I finally reached the carrot and can now play with my new toys. And I just might pull out a sock to work on too.

Math Blues

2008-07-25T10:57:00.017-04:00

There are those who would say that one shouldn't mix dots ....

.... with stripes.

To which I would respond, "Pshaw."

I used to be good with numbers. I think that was way back in Grade 4 or something. Once we went from the Imperial system to Metric, I only got worse. Yes, I can add, substract, multiply, divide, figure out percentages, etc., but actually internalizing what those numbers mean in real quantities often eludes me.

I love how the Whatnot sport-weight yarn from Union Center Knits in the Cloak colourway knits up in a great-for-denim stripey-ness. The colours all just meld together so well.

What I don't understand is why I cannot transfer the knowledge that I need 300 grams of DK weight yarn for a pair of socks into needing about the same amount of sport weight yarn. Yup, I ran out just at the start of the second toe. But I liked the stripes so much that I went stash-diving and found something that I thought would go with it, and re-knit the suckers with contrasting cuffs, toes and garter heels.

To further confound my math blues, it seems that 50 grams of DK weight yarn will make two cuffs, two heels, but only one toe. Sigh. Had to break out the second ball.

(Hush, you, I don't want to hear about toe-upped-ness. I'd have had the same problem, because I'd have knit the leg to the same length. And I also don't want to hear about two-at-a-time. I'm ornery that way.)

These stripes, they were worth it.

I did join SOS '08, so it was only fitting that I finish at least one pair over the summer, eh?

So what's keeping me from knitting more socks?

Um, that would be ... this.

I loves me some reversible cables, and when I first saw this pattern, I knew I'd have to make it some day. Well, that day has come. I really want to finish this by September, but my math blues have hit again. It only takes three balls of Smooshy, so I figured that's like three socks' worth of knitting, right? I can do that.

Umm, dude.

That's really six socks, probably seven because they're big balls. And it's all a form of 1x1 ribbing. On both sides, because it's reversible. And it's cables. And as much as I'm enjoying it, and I am enjoying it, it is taking for-freaking-ever.

I know there's such as thing as project monogamy, but I doubt I'm capable of it. Or am I?

Kaleidoscope # 4

2008-07-13T15:38:00.007-04:00

Another unusual combination of colours.

Mustard and mauve ...

Black and blue ...

Me likes it ... bunches.

Of course there were knots, so I only had one black and blue part and three mustard and mauves.

Silk Garden No. 247.

In the Other News Department, the Cross and Meet sock is now available as a Ravelry purchase. Go get it. :-)

Meets and Crosses ... or Just Meets

2008-07-03T17:33:00.012-04:00

I still haven't started on my second Ornette sock, but I had a chance to test knit another pattern, so I jumped at it. Oh, by the way, the Ornette pattern is now available -- it's a gorgeous sock, and I'm looking forward to seeing lots more of them out there, besides, you know, another one of mine. :-)

I really should stop knitting with red yarn. It's just about impossible to capture the colour correctly and it throws my cheap little camera into spasms. This is Socks that Rock, Mustang Sally, light weight. I apologize for the craptastic photos. I've tried adjusting the colour a smidge, and that helps, but when I download them into the blog, they seem to look worse again. Sigh.

So, the test pattern. It's really just a basic ribbed sock ... well, sort of.

Two bands of stockinette, delineated by cables, head out from the top front and wind their way down and around.

They meet again in the back at the top of the heel flap, which is ribbed. Meanwhile, four bands of stockinette, delineated with cables, start from a slightly later point at the back of the leg and wind their way around to the front.

When they meet on the side of the leg, they have a little party.

The bands from the back carry on around past the ankle.

... and meet again in the front. The lower one meets itself, but the upper one bounces back off and heads out again, ricochets against the sides of the sole and heads back towards the middle again, where it finally meets itself, just in time for the toe.

Very, very cool. The pattern is called Meets and Crosses, and should be available soon. Luckily, Bea, the designer of these beauties, has some much better and clearer pictures.

There is also a lace version of this pattern that uses YOs and decreases to demarcate the travelling bands instead of cables. Monika test-knit that one, and her picture of red socks is lovely. Sigh.

The astute and observant among you may have noticed that there is no toe on these socks. I assure you that the pattern does indeed call for a toe. These particular socks, however, will not only remain without a toe but will be ripped.

First, it bugs me that I didn't notice there was pooling in the gusset which resulted in that light coloured bit right in the middle of the motif that is right in the middle of the instep that is right in the middle of all the action. It obscures the pattern. If I had noticed it as I was knitting, I would have yanked out a piece of yarn to move the colours along.

Second, and more egregious than that, though, is the fact that although the pattern clearly states the gauge is to be 8 sts/in, I somehow managed to merrily knit away at 9 sts/in, and although the sock looks wonderful on the foot, getting it there is ... an adventure.

Karma? Bad mojo? Just meets? I think my second Ornette has exacted his revenge.

Kaleidoscope # 3

2008-06-24T09:33:00.005-04:00

Colours so hot they sear your retinas and confound my camera.

Orange and pink, with a bit of green, brown and black.

Like an autumn forest ... on crack.

Mr. Noro, your brain must be a wondrous place.

Silk Garden No. 84.

Atomic

2008-06-20T10:14:00.009-04:00

After knitting the Reversai socks, I wanted to try a garter stitch short row heel on a regular type sock. Since these ones just happened to be ready for a heel, they became my test.

Turns out that I can indeed wear a garter stitch short row heel knit over half the stitches, with one third of the heel left unworked. I'm a happy knitter.

The yarn is Socks that Rocks, Atomic #6, medium weight. I didn't enjoy knitting with this as much as I did the light weight. It felt kind of ropey and not as squishy. However, the socks are nice and thick and should be good for winter wear. I mis-judged the leg length for this type of heel, though, and the socks are a bit shorter than I would normally prefer, especially for a winter sock. There was lots of yarn left over, so next time I'll know better. Sorry for the dark pictures, but it's really grey out there today.

I got this yarn in a swap a year or two ago, and it's not colours I would normally gravitate towards, but I was glad for the chance to try out the yarn base. Although everyone else seems to be able to get pooling and zigging and zagging, I seem to continue my trend of spiraling stripes. Sigh.

That's the end of SAM 5. I haven't signed up for SAM 6, although I did for Summer of Socks. Although they won't count under the rules for Summer of Socks, I do have a few singles that need mates, so I'll I'll try to finished those this summer, as well as a few other projects that are either waiting or percolating.

It's funny how a change in season seems to renew the knitting agenda. I wonder if I'd get more done if we had six seasons instead of four.

Kaleidoscope # 2

2008-06-08T09:48:00.014-04:00

I didn't think I'd gotten into a colour rut ...

... but it seems I'd forgotten ...

... what a perfectly glorious colour ...

... purple can be.

Silk Garden No. 232

Half an Ornette

2008-06-01T18:06:00.008-04:00

It starts at the top and spirals its way down and around ...

... across the front ...

.
.. down to the gusset and stops there. But another one starts at the flap ....

... and flows along the foot, then across top ...

... all the way to the toe.

And now I get to do the other one. Only backwards. :-)

Except I won't be using these. I couldn't figure out why this sock was taking so long, and I seemed to be always fighting with the stitches. Then I stopped and had a good look at the needles.

Can you guess which four of the five Knitpicks needles I'd been using? This is only the third sock I've knit with these.

Meilenweits for May

2008-05-31T11:13:00.006-04:00

Whoa, where did May go? The end of the month kind of snuck on me. Luckily I had a pair of socks just waiting for the final toe so I could get them in for the May entry in the Sock-a-Month KAL.

When word came down in Sock Madness that one of the designs would use Japanese Short Rows in the heel, I thought I'd better practise them ... just in case, you know. Turns out they are fairly easy to work.

The best tutorial on the net seems to be over at nonaKnits. She uses a safety pin around the working yarn to help identify the strand you use to close up the gap. This probably works a treat if you're doing short row shoulder shaping, but when you have as many turnings as you do in a sock heel, I think it would be a bit awkward. I just used a strand of waste yarn and flipped it back and forth under the working yarn as I did the heel, and it worked out quite well.

The technique is fairly easy to work. The join is quite stretchy, much stretchier than my usual Sherman heel, but I found it was also a bit less solid.

I'm not sure that I'm ready to make a complete switch, but it's nice to have another technique under the belt.

This is the first time I've used this yarn. It's ... ok. It was fairly loosely twisted, so I had to be careful not to split the stitches. There were a few spots that were a bit on the fluffy side and one where I think one strand had broken but I didn't notice until I was past the point of worrying about it. If you're fussy about matching stripes, this probably isn't your best choice. The colour changes are very gradual, and I'm not even sure I can identify a repeat after having knit both socks.

Kaleidoscope # 1

2008-05-20T10:55:00.011-04:00

I really have no business starting up another large project. Do you know how many things are just sitting around here half done?

Actually, I shouldn't be starting up any more small ones either. I mean, just look at all the single or half-finished socks laying around here.

I really should learn to control my ~~compulsive impulsive~~ carefree side and concentrate more on finishing stuff.

But sometimes you just kind of get ... captivated, you know?

Noro Silk Garden No. 255.

Unreversai

2008-05-10T19:18:00.013-04:00

You may correctly surmise from the fact that I haven't been madly posting finished Sock Madness socks that I was eliminated. Yup, I got the boot a sock and a half into round two, and here is the culprit.

The Round 2 pattern was Reversai - now available to purchase here. While I quite like the stitch pattern, the sock itself is a bit of gimmick. It's reversible, with a garter stitch short row heel, garter sole and garter toe. It was nice to try the garter heel, and I intend to play with it a bit more. As near as I can tell, it fit my high instep using half the stitches, but I'm not sure if the garter sole was a factor in that. I do know that I didn't care for the garter toe and I wouldn't wear them as knit, and even though the sock doesn't look too bad in the picture, in real life the stitch pattern was obscured by the colouration of the yarn, so they've been ripped.

I did, however, re-do them as "normal" socks. I will admit that after having already just about finished a pair, getting what was essentially sock number four finished gave me a major case of Fourth Sock Syndrome. They're done, now, though, and I'm quite happy with the result.

With a solid yarn and a flap heel and normal sole and my regular toe, I'm a happy camper. This yarn has some a bit of silk in it, which gives the fabric a nice sheen that plays well with the texture of the pattern.

I was a bit worried about the toes. With a 44-row stitch pattern, you can't be quite sure if you'll end up at a good place to put in the toes. I lucked out and it worked out perfectly.

A word about the yarn: it's Regia Silk, 55 % wool, 25 % polyamid and 20 % silk. It feels completely different from regular Regia, and it was nice to work with. I'm not sure I'd use it again, though, because both skeins were literally littered with lint, from start to finish. I initially was picking it out, but finally gave up, hoping it would wash out. It didn't, so I guess I'll be picking lint as I notice it. You can actually see a piece of it in the close-up picture, on the right toe above and just to the left of the label below.

I went back to the LYS to see if the other skeins were similar. I didn't notice any lint, but everything that was left on the shelf looked ... fuzzy. Regia has normally been a good reliable yarn, but I don't think I'll be getting any more of this particular one.

Another reason it look so long to finish these socks is that I've been more than a little distracted by this:

Twist and Shout

2008-04-18T20:30:00.015-04:00

I had a bit of time between Round 1 and Round 2 of Sock Madness, so I knit ... some socks.

When Michelle posted about a pair of socks that she knit a while ago, I commented on how much I liked them. Luckily for me, she was writing up the pattern and asked if I would be interested in test knitting it for her. Of course I said yes.

Super fun, super fast, and super socks. The pattern was very well written and easy to follow -- so easy that I was able to make my first toe-up heel flap socks by just following her direction. I didn't realize it was ... easy- LOL!!

Please excuse the brown socks on grey concrete photos ... I was so happy with the socks that I didn't think about the background.

The pattern is now available either from Michelle's blog or directly from Ravelry. Give it a try ... I think you'll like it.

I must admit to being a bad test knitter, though. I couldn't help but mess around with the ribbing at the top of the sock. Just change the first and last stitches of the chart, and then knit in pattern instead of 1x1, and you get this.

In the Other News Department, Laura has devised a very clever cast-on that works wonderfully for entrelac and she's given me permission to link to it from the Garterlac pattern page. Thanks very much, Laura -- I'm finally getting around to it. Apologies to the rest of you if that page shows up in your feed readers again because I mucked about with it.

Zombies!!

2008-03-17T09:51:00.009-04:00

It was with some trepidation that I signed up for Sock Madness. I'm not a fast knitter, and I have a job with long and weird hours. Could I even do it? What if there was a bunch of toe-ups? Not my preferred way to go. What if there were lace patterns? I've knit and worn some fairly wild socks as far as colour goes, but I do kinda draw the line at lace. Frankly, men's feet & lace? Not really a good combination.

The Zombie pattern was released last Thursday, but I wasn't able to get to it until late Friday night. Thankfully, top down, but it does indeed involve drop stitches which result in a lace pattern of sorts. Hmmm. The pattern notes indicate that solid or semi-solid would best show the pattern, but they also say "think monster." I decided to go the monster route and dug around in the stash.

Koigu PPPM, colour P129. I really don't know when and where I got this, and I really don't know what I was thinking at the time. It's not my normal cup of tea. I hope that the colours were off on the screen shot when I bought it and I was thinking it was brown and blue, but in real life it's a lot of pink tones and dark blue, with some yellow and green thrown in . All the colours of a really good bruise. :-) Perfect for Zombies!

I knew that if I used a short row heel, I could get a pair of socks out of two skeins of Koigu at 64 stitches, which is the cast-on for these socks. However, once I got into the pattern, I realized that all those dropped stitches are extras -- like, 16 extra stitches in each round. And then I got to the heel flap and started sweating. I would normally make a longer flap to improve the fit, but in this case I didn't because (a) we were supposed to follow the pattern exactly and (b) I was scared I would run out of yarn. In the end, they do fit because the pattern stitch has great stretch, but the flap is a bit short on my foot. I will modify the fit in any future patterns, as I think that would be allowed under the rules.

I did get some awful pooling in the gusset though, which I normally would have fixed but didn't here because it wouldn't have followed the pattern. I also learned that I really do not like picking up stitches along a garter edge. Although it makes a nice, neat join, it took f-o-r-f-r-e-a-k-i-n-g-e-v-e-r to get the gussests picked up.

When I was knitting the toe, I ended up putting the yarn in a bag under my chair because I was tired of looking at it and watching it shrink. Luckily, I had enough, with some to spare. I could have made the heel deeper - sigh.

I will admit right here that although the pattern is indeed very nice (see the pic on the Sock Madness page), my goal was to hide it somewhat so that I'd end up with socks I could and would wear. The fleshy tones of this yarn, together with the strong variegation, seem to have done the trick.

"Dude, you got holes your socks?" "What holes? I don't see no stinking holes."

Sock No. 1 was done 10:30 Saturday night, and Sock No. 2 by 11:45 Sunday night. My hands were fine, but my back was sore from all the sitting. The pattern was fun to knit, and dropping the stitches was kind of cool. I liked that little "rrripp" sound they made when you pulled them apart. It's nice to know that I can indeed knit a pair of socks in two days, but I'm beginning to wonder why I want to. :-)

Doncha hate it when someone uses exactly the same colour as the photo on the pattern?

Black and White

2008-03-10T21:53:00.009-04:00

Ya know, I really didn't think I'd get it finished before the end of winter.

I was wrong.

Yup, a Koolhaas, with Kat hair, on a Kanister, by the Kerb.

Once I saw these start to appear in blogland in black, I was hooked, and I don't even wear black. I mean, I have some black pants, and some black shoes, but that's about it. For some reason, this resonated.

I made the larger size, so it would keep my ears and forehead covered when I'm using winter's other ultimate accessory.

Since we keep getting more and more of this stuff.

SAM 5 - February done!

2008-02-17T11:53:00.015-05:00

Oceanwind Knits fingering merino, in the Indigo colourway -- all together now, can we say "YUM"?

Yes, we can.

I found the colours in this yarn very hard to capture accurately. Overall, they read blue.

When you get up close, you can see the individual colours a bit better.

One hank had a bit more dark in it, so the socks don't have the same marbling effect, but given the wonderful softness of the yarn itself, I'll forgive that.

Lori hand paints and kettle dyes her yarns, so there's no pooling or striping.

The yarn itself was an absolute pleasure to knit with -- very much like Koigu in twist and weight, but better in yardage. I love these socks.

So, are you getting tired of seeing plain old socks around these parts? Seems that's all I've been knitting lately. I'm even beginning to bore myself, but that's all I've felt like lately. Maybe it's time to mix it up a bit. Or maybe not. Ye gads, I hate February. Is it spring yet? Sigh. Over and out.

SAM 5 - January done!

2008-01-27T10:09:00.001-05:00

Thank you, all, for your very many comments on the loss of my friend Emmett. The warmth and kindness you have shown is humbling, and a little overwhelming. Keep your friends and family close, and let them know that you care, in both your actions and your words.

On to the knitting:

Having found myself once again in the position of having quite a few singleton or half-done socks, I thought I should impose a little discipline. Hello, Sock-a-Month 5. Should be no problem, since I've likely got six pairs in various stages of completion. Right. Grab Pair No. 1 and knit, knit, knit -- get to the toe of Sock No. 2 and also the end of the yarn. Huh? I very seldom run out of yarn, but it happened this time. No problem, as there are others waiting to be finished. Grab Pair No. 2 and knit, knit, knit -- and I run out of yarn again. Sigh. I might have cursed. Grab pair No. 3, and knit, knit, knit -- try it on to see if I'm ready for the toe and notice a hole way back at the beginning of the foot. Yes, I dropped a stitch and hadn't noticed. Rip, and knit, knit, knit -- finally, after knitting what amounts to 6.5 socks, I have ... a pair.

The yarn is Schaefer Anne, in a colourway called Safari. It comes in humongous 560 yard hanks, so you're unlikely to run out of yarn. :-)

This is the first time I've used this yarn, and I like it. It is on the finer side, and the fabric feels kind of woolly and looks kind of fuzzy. The colours have a bit of glow to them. I was surprised, though, to see stripes emerging.

I need a bit more practise with yarn this thin. I got a line of wonky stitches at the needle joins, which didn't completely wash out, although I think it will over time.

In the Other News Department, I met some other Ottawa knitters! They enticed me with things like yarn and needles, so out I went. Paula put together a group Peace Fleece order, and Sarah did a Knit Picks order. Luckily, Leanne was available to meet up at the same time to pick up her goodies. It was very nice to finally meet you, ladies, and I hope to get out to some Ottawa Knit Nights in the near future.

In the Even More Other News Department, I have been very lax in posting a prize I won in a blog contest held by yet another Ottawa knitter, Joanna. She's probably been wondering what I did with her very generous gift certificate to Robyn's Nest. Well, I might have got some yarn.

And while I was at it, because my stash seems to be lacking in solid colours, I might have ... well, I did.

Thanks very much, Joanna, for both the prize and the enabling. :-)

The World Lost a Knitter Today

2008-01-04T20:45:00.000-05:00

About five years ago, when my friend Emmett learned that I knit, he delightfully proclaimed, "I knit too! We should get together and knit some evening." And so we did. As a matter of fact, it became a ritual. Every Saturday evening, we would go out for dinner, then rent a few movies and sit and knit. Nine times out of ten they were horror movies. The cheesier they were, the more Emmett liked them.

The first time we got together, I brought over my sock in progress. Emmett said, "Oh, is that wool?" I replied that it was. He said, "I'm allergic to wool." When I asked what he knit, he brought out his slipper in progress -- Phentex, and, if I recall correctly, blue and white. He said that was the only thing he could actually knit with. I asked him if he'd ever tried cotton. He asked, "What would you make with cotton?" I showed him some patterns off the Internet, and he was delighted. I think he cranked out four or five dishcloths a week.

I did try to broaden his interests. He made scarves for all his grandchildren one year for Christmas. I finally convinced him to try a a circular needle, and although he didn't like it, he did start an afghan for his daughter, and had plans to make one for his son as well. But his main love was dishcloths. As long as he was knitting something -- anything -- he was happy.

Emmett felt that knitting helped keep his hands limber for his other love -- playing the organ in his church, where he was also the choir director and the sacristan. He knew his liturgy and more Latin words and phrases than you can shake a stick at. We had many lively discussions about religion and life -- if you knew us, you'd know that it was mostly him talking and me listening -- but I could never convince him he was wrong. ;-) I'll just say it was good thing we both had a sense of humour.

I am pleased to say that I was able to introduce some new techniques to Emmett. I taught him how to purl and do a YO. I remember the struggles he had with DPNs when he first tried to make a round dish cloth. He had great fun when he first tried the Ball Band dish cloth -- imagine, two colours at once! Presently on his needles is his very first project with cables -- a scarf for his granddaughter.

Unfortunately, that scarf will never be finished. Emmett died today as a result of a massive stroke. Emmett, my friend, I will miss you. I really don't know how I will get through this Saturday evening, but I do know that you will be knitting up there in heaven -- with Chuckie and his Bride, Freddie, Leatherface, Jason and all the rest of them.

Seasonal Sockage

2007-12-16T13:23:00.001-05:00

I swear I didn't plan it this way. I cast on a bunch of socks last fall, and they've been sitting by my desk, waiting patiently for a few odd minutes here and there. These just happened to come off the needles this month.

The yarn is by Liza Souza, in the Little Devil colourway. I won it in a contest on Aija's blog a while ago. (Thanks again, Aija!)

I wasn't really expecting it to stripe -- very cool! The yarn is wonderfully soft merino and a joy to knit with.

The colours have a slight variegation within both the red and the black, which kind of helps to relieve the Wally effect, although it doesn't completely eliminate it. :-)

The yarn. although on the fine side, comes in humongous 560 yard hanks, and I had a whack of it left over. If you're knitting for someone with big feet, this would be a great choice.

This little beauty is from Jessie over at A Piece of Vermont. It's her Weybridge Blend, 60% Romney/Corriedale, 20% Mohair and 20% Alpaca. It's not soft like merino, but it has a great woolly feel as you knit it. This blend in a sport weight yarn gives a nice, toasty-warm sock, which is just what I need now that winter seems to be here in full force.

Jessie does wonderful subtle colourways. This one is no exception. She calls it Rosemary, and it's a wonderful silvery green with smudges of other greens thrown in.

These will need to be hand washed, so I knitted in a little reminder of that.

The weather outside is frightful, but my feet feel so delightful!

I was hoping to share some pictures of the winter wonderland out there, but it's still just a bit wild for that at the moment. Instead, please accept this knit blog version of a Christmas tree.

Opposite Ends of the Spectrum

2007-11-28T11:20:00.001-05:00

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

2007-11-12T21:33:00.001-05:00

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 !!

2007-11-03T15:41:00.000-04:00

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!

Humdiggedty!

2007-10-27T10:34:00.001-04:00

Big yarn ....

... makes big socks.

(Man's second best friend included for scale.)

A coupla trips through the washing machine ...

... gives you a wonderfully thick and warm pair of slipper socks. The pattern is Hamer's Humdingers, a variation of the old Two-strand Wool-Ease socks. Quick and easy. Very quick, as in you can easily do a whole sock in one evening.

Progress is progressing on my Curve of Pursuit, albeit slowly.

That's Square Six of Twelve finished, which might lead you to surmise that I'm halfway done, but you would be mistaken because each square is 1.5 times bigger than its predecessor. It's now at a stage where there's more knitting than picking up of stitches, so it should be easier to work on in bits and pieces of spare time.

I've decided not to do the Secret of Chrysopolis. First it morphed from a shawl into a stole, which gave me pause, and then it developed some hearts and stuff. It's a nice pattern, but not what I was hoping it would be. You can see someone else's here.

I'm in the Mystic Waters KAL, and this one is looking quite nice so far ... again, someone else's can be seen here. I like this one a lot better, but I don't think the rusty alpaca I was hoping to use would work as well for this. I'll sit on the side for a bit until I decide. If I do go for it, I might have to spring for some blue-ish Sea Silk. T'would be a pity, that. :-) Or maybe I should dig out the Swallowtail. Hmmmm.

In the Other News Department, I'm in Ravelry! Not very far in, but I'm in. I don't think I'll be posting stash, etc., but it should be good for researching patterns, etc. My Ravelry name is CriminyJickets; you may friend me, if you wish. (I'm not really sure yet what that means, but what the heck.)

Digging further into the Other News Department, my cable needle has run away from home. If you see it, please tell it Daddy loves it and would like it to come back home. I'm hoping to not have to resort to posting its picture on milk cartons.

Ridges and Ribs

2007-10-08T11:36:00.001-04:00

That Mama-E ... she's always up to something. A while ago, she approached me about creating a colourway that was guy friendly. Hmm. Guy, or guy knitter? I went with guy knitter. :-)

I told her I really liked the Northern Lights colours in this picture. She took it from there, and created this yarn.

Of course, that wasn't the end of the deal. My end of the bargain was that I then had to come up with a new sock pattern.

Done!

At the time I was thinking about this, there was a lot of discussion on various blogs about patterns that would avoid pooling and striping. I don't think this yarn would have done that, given the way it was dyed, but I wanted to come up with something that might help with other yarns that would pool. I ended up using an elongated slip stitch, which should be enough to pull any yarn out of the pool, and twisting it to create a bit of a ridge for added texture.

Of course I had to use my favourite heel -- the Eye of the Partridge -- but I decided to carry one ridge down each side of the flap. I don't normally do that, but it was fun and gives it a bit of a different look.

Ridges and Ribs Socks

Fingering weight yarn and needles to give 9 stitches/inch
Sized to fit a man's Small or woman's Medium

(All stitches are slipped purl-wise unless otherwise noted, but always with yarn on wrong side.)

Cast on 72 stitches, join, (24-24-24) not twisting, etc.

Set up round (work once) * K3, P2, K1, P2 * repeat around

Commence pattern, 8-stitch/4-round repeat.

R1: * K3, P2, K1 wrapping stitch twice, P2 *

R2: * K3, P2, slip 1 knit-wise dropping extra wrap, P2 *

R3: * K3, P2, slip 1 knit-wise, P2 *

R4: Same as R3

Repeat the four pattern rows a total of 22 times, approx 7 inches (or to desired cuff length, ending with R4)

Divide for heel flap: K1 from needle 1 onto needle 3. (Instep begins and ends with 2 K stitches) Bring yarn to front, slip 1, bring yarn back, return stitch. The first instep stitch is wrapped. Turn and set up heel flap (Centre portion is EOP, with ridges on each side):

P1, K2, P1 wrapping stitch twice, K2, P17, P2tog, P8, K2, P1 wrapping twice, K2, P1 (38 stitches.)

Bring yarn to back, slip 1, yarn front, return stitch (instep stitch wrapped.) Turn, RS facing.

Heel flap (repeat the following 4 rows 9 times – 36 rows total):

R1: Sl 1, P2, slip 1 knit-wise dropping extra wrap, P2, (slip 1, K1) 13 times, P2, slip 1 knit-wise dropping extra wrap, P2, K1.

R2: Sl 1, K2, slip one purl-wise, K2, P26, K2, slip one purl-wise, K2, P1.

R3: Sl 1, P2, slip 1 knit-wise, return stitch to left needle and slip it knit-wise again, P2, (K1, slip 1) 13 times, P2, slip 1 knit-wise, return stitch to left needle and slip it knit-wise again, P2, K1.

R4: Sl 1, K2, P1 wrapping stitch twice, K2, P26, K2, P1 wrapping twice, K2, P1.

NB: On last repeat, wrap the purl stitch only once, NOT TWICE.

Turn heel (Round heel):

Sl 1, K20, SSK, K1, turn.
Sl 1, P5, P2tog, P1, turn.
Sl 1, K6, SSK, K1, turn.
Sl 1, P7, P2tog, P1, turn.

Continue working one more stitch before decreasing across gap until all stitches are worked – 22 stitches remain.

Sl 1, K across.

Pick up one stitch in each slipped stitch along heel flap (18 stitches).

Using a fresh needle, work across instep, picking up the wrap on the two outermost stitches and working ridges and ribs as set, starting with R1 of pattern.

Using another needle, pick up one stitch in each slipped stitch along heel flap (19 stitches) Yes, one extra on the second side of the flap. K 11 to middle of heel/beginning of round.

Knit to the last three stitches on needle one, K2tog, K1. On the instep needle, knit in pattern. On needle three, K 1, SSK, knit to end. Alternate knitting plain rounds and decrease rounds until you are back at 72 stitches.

Knit foot until approximiately 2 inches short of desired length, ending on row 4. Discontinue instep pattern and commence toe decreases. Distribute stitches 18-36-18.

Decrease Rnd: Needle 1, knit to last three stitches, K2tog, K1. Needle 2, K1, SSK, knit to last three stitches, K2tog, K1. Needle 3, K1, SSK, knit to end.

Knit three rounds plain.

*Knit one decrease round, knit two rounds plain * Repeat between asterisks two times.

*Knit one decrease round, knit one round plain* Repeat between asterisks three times.

Knit only decrease rounds until 16 stitches remain. Graft toe and make second sock.

That tunnel has a light at the end.

2007-10-04T13:18:00.000-04:00

You know how sometimes you just feel so busy that you get overwhelmed and instead of getting everything done you get nothing done? Yeah, that was September.

In lieu of any actual knitting content, and in an effort to avoid anyone having to ask, "Are you still alive", please allow me to merely point to several things that have caught my attention recently, the first being Blogging Without Obligation.

I like this. A lot. As in, I intend to follow it. If you like the philosophy behind eradicating "post pollution," feel free to share.

Next up: Fun with short rows!! Very cool. And then, more fun with short rows -- on socks!! I'm going to have to figure out how to adapt that into a sock that I can wear.

Next up: Knitters Tea Swap 4 is now open!

That's all for now. I may have an FO this weekend, but maybe not.

SSS

2007-09-09T10:59:00.000-04:00

I seem lately to be suffering from SSS -- no, not Second Sock Syndrome, but Seasonal Startitis Syndrome. Whenever the seasons change, I say to myself, "This spring I should knit THIS," or, "This fall I should knit THAT." Given my abysmal track record at finishing large projects, I do know better than to start them. Usually, anyway. I've been good for a long time, but the last two weeks I've given free reign to my impulses. Things have been flying on, and then back off, the needles at an alarming rate. I think I've settled down a bit now, though. I'm not obligating myself to finish these things, but ... well, we'll see.

Yes, it's a swatch. But please note, it's a completed swatch! Blocked and all. I signed up for the Secret of Chrysopolis. It's a German Yahoo group, but the pattern will also be coming out in English. I don't normally like doing "secret" things, but for some reason the name of this caught my attention. Yes, I admit it's strange to do something just because you like the name of it. I have nothing to offer in my defence. :-) I did have some reservations about the swatch as I was knitting it, but it came out quite nicely. This may be as far as it gets, or I may carry on; I reserve the right to decide later. I do know that at the first mention of nupps or beads, I'm outta there. :-) The yarn is Misti Alpaca, and it's very nice to work with.

This is kind of a jumbled mess right now, with lot of ends sticking out here and there, but it will sort itself out in due time. It's the beginnings of a Curve of Pursuit from Woolly Thoughts. You can seem some particularly nice finished ones here and here. I found picking up the initial stitches to be fiddly (read, a PITA!!), but once you start going round and round, it's a lot of fun. I love short rows. The yarn is Indicieta Alpaca, so if I finish this, it will be soft and cuddly and very warm.

This I am hoping will grow up to be a scarf. It's Paula's very cool CorruGarterGator scarf. I'm doing the fingering weight version using 37 stitches (because 37 is my favourite number -- good a reason as any; right?), using the lovely handspun that I received from Melinda in the Knitter's Tea Swap 2. I think the texture and subtle colouration of the yarn go very well with the stitch pattern. Those white spots you see in the photo are actually the sparkles in the yarn!! Very cool. I love knitting this, and it should make a great, long, skinny, soft and sparkly scarf.

Speaking of swaps, I see the International Scarf Exchange 5 is starting up, if anyone is interested. I think I'll sit this one out, though, because I don't want any deadline knitting this fall. Also, the Knitters Tea Swap 4 will be starting up soon.

I may also have four or five socks on the needles, with one pair getting close to finished. More about that when they're done. I'm thinking all that should keep me going for the fall, so no more SSS. If I get antsy, I do have just a few UFOs that could use FOing. Maybe I should get to them . Or not.

I'm hungry. I think I'll go find something to eat. :-)

Versailles Bookmark

2007-08-28T12:08:00.000-04:00

Books make great gifts, but I like to personalize them a bit by including a handmade bookmark. Here's one I recently finished.

There are many very nice bookmark patterns already on the net, but I haven't yet found one that has lace patterning on both sides, so I thought I'd put this up here. It's a quick and easy way to introduce yourself to this type of knitting.
I apologize for the crappy pictures. I had to use the flash to get something without shadows, and the colour red continues to confound my cheap little Radio Shack camera.
This bookmark is knit length-ways and is self-fringing. The pattern kind of looks like leaves and kind of looks like rectangles, depending on your mood, I guess.

(Edit December 28, 2011: Blogger has apparently decided that all my nicely numbered rows should actually appear as bullet points instead. Blech. There's a properly formatted copy of this pattern available for free on Ravelry. I would recommend you download that instead.)

Versailles Bookmark (Versailles Pattern is from Barbara Walker's Second Treasury.)
Materials: I used Opera No. 20 Crochet Cotton and 1.75 mm needles. You can use whatever you want as long as the solid parts look kinda solid and the holes look kinda holey.
Using a provisional cast-on (this one works wonderfully!), cast on 68 stitches.
Set up row: K 7, place marker, K 54, place marker, K 7.

(RS) K 4, P 1 TBL, K 2, knit across to second marker, K 2, P 1 TBL, K 4.
(WS) K 4, K1 TBL, K2, knit across to second marker, K2, K1 TBL, K4.

Repeat R1, R2, then R1 - 6 rows in total, including the set-up row.
The outermost seven stitches on each end are border stitches and the portion between the markers will be knit in pattern. The format is four garter stitches, 1 reverse stockingnette twisted on every row, two garter stitches, marker, pattern, marker, 2 garter stitches, 1 reverse stockingette twisted on every row, four garter stitches. The reverse twisted stockinette stitches are important -- don't forget them.
The lace pattern is irregular. Don't bother trying to put markers between the repeats, because it won't work. When you reach the second marker, sometimes you'll be able to do a full repeat, but sometimes you'll have extra stitches left over or not enough for a full repeat. Just end before the second marker with the stitches indicated after the word "end".
There are a lot of P2tog-TBLs in here. I hate those. Instead, I used "Purl 1 and slip it back to the left needle, lift the second stitch on the left needle over the stitch just purled and off the needle, slip the stitch back to the right needle." If you wish, you can do that too, and I won't tell anyone.
Keeping the border in pattern, knit the lace between the markers.

(WS) Purl.
K2 * YO, SSK, K8 * end K2
K2 *YO, P2tog, P5, P2tog-TBL, YO, P1 * end K2
K4 * YO, SSK, K3, K2tog, YO, K3 *
K2, P2 * YO, P2tog, P1, P2tog-TBL, YO, P5 * end P3, K2
K6 * YO, Sl1-K2tog-PSSO, YO, K7 * end K5
K2 * P3, P2tog-TBL, YO * end K2
K3 * YO, SSK, K3 * end K1
K2, P1 * P2tog-TBL, YO, P3 * end P2, K2
K5 * YO, SSK, K3 * end K2
K1 * P2tog-TBL, YO, P3 * end P1, K2
K2 * YO, SSK, K3 * end K2
Same as Row 3
Same as Row 4
Same as Row 5
Same as Row 6
K2, P1 * P3, YO, P2tog * end K1
K5 * K2tog, YO, K3 * end K2
K2, P1 *YO, P2tog, P3 * end P2, K2
K3 * K2tog, YO, K3 * end K1
K2 * P3, YO, P2tog * end K2
K1 * K2tog, YO, K3 * end K3
Same as Row 3
Same as Row 4
Same as Row 5
Same as Row 6
Purl.

Starting with a RS row, knit six rows of garter stitch as at the beginning, keeping the border stitches in pattern.
Binding off, RS facing: K 4, P1-TBL, K1, * replace the last two stitches onto the left needle and knit them together through back loop, K1 * repeat until you reach the second reverse twisted stockingnette, P1-TBL, replace the last two stitches onto the left needle and knit them together through back loop. Cut the yarn, leaving a tail long enough to weave in. You are left with four stitches on the right needle and four on the left. Pull the needles out and just let those stitches hang there for the moment. Take the tail that you just cut and weave it in on the wrong side through the column of twisted stockinette. Pick up the stitches from the provisional cast-on and bind off in a similar fashion. (Depending on which cast-on you used and how you picked the stitches up, you could be on either the wrong side or the right side. Just be sure to twist the stitches that need twisting and not binding off the four outermost garter stitches on each end.)
Finishing: Unravel the four garter stitches on each end up to the twisted stitch. The twisted stitch will not unravel. Snip the far end of the loops so that each loop becomes two strands of fringe. Wet block, stretching it out so the pattern shows well and the ends and sides are straight. Smooth out the kinks in the fringe so it is straight. When dry, unpin and trim the fringe ends evenly.
That's it. If you knit this, I'd love to see a picture.

Boston and Back

2007-08-26T12:25:00.001-04:00

Yup, I went to Massachusetts, and didn't even have to leave home -- my "souvenirs" from the Knitter's Virtual Vacation Swap arrived!

Angela somehow knew exactly what I would have picked out to bring back home with me! Coffee, tea, Yankee candles, a beaded snowflake, tour book and baked beans (baked in Canada, I might say! LOL) And she made that very cool bookmark with the Red Socks! She also made the stitch markers which unfortunately you can see very well in that picture, but they have sea-themed dangleys on them -- sweet! And of course she sent yarn.

Cape Cod, of course! Thank you so much, Angela -- everything was perfect! My mini-vacation was certainly a welcome break.

Of course, once I got back to real life, I was still faced with my Dugly-Uck socks. I was trying to keep the coloured stripe pattern flowing through the gusset while maintaining the stitch pattern, and I think I succeeded.

The problem was that once I switched the foot over to stockinette, the striped wonked out on me. There were several ways I could have done it, but I decided it would be easiest to just put the pattern stitch on the front of the leg and foot and keep the back and the sole plain. It worked!

Unfortunately, I think the reduced patterning doesn't really do justice to the stitch pattern. There isn't quite as much variation as I had when the pattern went around the entire sock. Look here for an excellent example of what this stitch pattern can do for you.

By using only three Cable Twist repeats, I was able to keep the stripes from zigzagging. There are "gentle bumps" caused by the slipped stitches, but it's still a stripe.

On one sock, the stripe got a bit wider just before the heel. I lay the blame for that squarely on the horror movie I was watching as I was knitting it.

I still think this is a weird colourway. To be fair, in the pattern that came with it, they suggested that if you didn't want stripes, you could alternate ends of yarn. I was only able to find one picture of finished socks using that technique. I think it's nicer than the stripes, but I'm too lazy for it. (To the extent that I reknit these socks what? three times? LOL!)

The Socks that Rock yarn certainly feels nice as you knit it, and it makes a thick fabric that should be soft and warm. I had to wash these before I took pictures because the yarn was re-knit so often that it looked a little uneven. They were taking forever to dry, given our recent patch of humidity. I checked the label and Blue Moon recommended the dryer. In they went, and out they came, looking great. Bonus!

I was able to play with the band heel a bit more. I originally thought that you couldn't really alter the sizing of it, but you can if you treat it more like a short-row heel than a heel flap. In other words, you can't just make a longer heel flap, but you can use more than half the stitches for the flap, which has the same result. I ended up using half of the stitches plus 4 extras, which gave me four extra rows in the heel flap. The fit is perfect on my high instep, and there is no gusset wonkiness.

Other things I learned while knitting these socks:

Knitting with yarn that doesn't particularly appeal to you can lead to Second Sock Syndrome. I really had to force myself, often unsuccessfully, to work on the second one.
Repeatedly telling yourself "It will grow on you" doesn't necessarily mean it will.

Skinning the Cat

2007-08-09T12:34:00.000-04:00

I'm surprised that so many of you jumped at the chance to win some Dugly-Uck yarn. Most of you picked up on the point that I missed as I was planning my sock -- when I changed over the foot to stockinette, the yarn usage per round changed sufficiently that the colour patterning changed.

Thanks to the good old Random Number Generator, Caren in N.H. gets herself a hank of ugly yarn to play with. I picked out this one:

It's from the Posh Yarn sock club and didn't come with a label, but it's supposed to be a cashmere blend of some sort. I hope the colours suit Caren more than they do me. Congratulations, Caren!

It seems that the desire for ugly yarn is so strong that some of you missed my asking that entries be emailed rather than commented. In your honours, I have decided to award another prize - a very special one - to another winner specifically from you. I went through the sock stash and picked out The Ugliest Yarn I could find. But then, because I'm a nice guy, I decided to lessen the blow by giving the winner a choice. Erica, pick one of the two pictured below, and it's yours! To protect the guilty, I'm not going to tell you what these yarns are - it'll be a surprise.

Amazingly enough, that was kind of hard to do. As I was photographing them, I couldn't help but wonder how they'd knit up. It's a sickness, and I got it bad.

So, skinning the cat, more than one way, etc. One way to get rid of Dugly-Uck yarn is to give it away, and another is to keep slogging at the one on the needles. I ripped back to the heel flap and knit the foot with slip stitches but no twists or ribs. (Thanks for the suggestion, Helen and Maaike!) Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to even out the pooling, and it changed the fit enough that it felt a bit tight. It looked basically the same as last time, only more annoying. RIP!

Enter Plan B. (Or is that C or D ... I've forgotten already.)

I was able to get this ....

... which I actually kind of like. Hmm. Unfortunately, that doesn't fit either. I'd have to go down about eight stitches, and then I'd lose the marbling. But I've thought of something else, so RIP! again and on to Plan C (or D or E or whatever it is.)

I must say that I'm having fun with this, and considering that this yarn has been knit and ripped several times, the STR is holding up quite well. I'm impressed so far. Well, except for the dog poop on the waterslide aspect of it. (Lovely analogy, Kristen -- thank you!)

The Band Heel -- generically

2007-08-05T15:50:00.000-04:00

ETA Aug. 26/07:
1. You can adjust the fit of this heel similarly to a short row heel. Just use more than half the stitches for the flap, and the length of the flap automatically gets longer.
2. A few people have asked me how this heel would work toe up. Simple answer: I don't know, because I don't usually go in that direction. If you figure it out, let me know. :-)

The Band Heel has a flap but no gusset. By doing some shaping inside the heel flap, once you've picked up your stitches you end up at the same stitch count you were at originally -- no decrease rounds required. This is good for those occasions when you're trying to match up a colour pattern and don't want the wonkiness that can occur while decreasing a gusset. It's called a Band Heel because you end up with a nice, little band at the back and bottom of your heel.

A few notes first:

Step 1 is simple math. Do not fear the math. If push comes to shove, use the calculator on your computer, or ask your kids to help you.

The heel is designed so that you end up with 8 stitches left after the turn, and the flap rows require a specific count in order to restore this to your original count. Do not modify the number of flap rows in Step 2 or it will not work.

The patterns I've seen all call for Step 2 to be done in stockinette. I imagine, though, you could very easily carry a pattern through these rows. I would be a little leery, however, about heel stitch or Eye of Partridge because slip stitches have a condensed row gauge and may throw off the fit and stretch required for this heel. Feel free to experiment.

I have modified Step 3 in two ways. The other patterns I've seen use SSK, and I've used SKP because when I did it with SSK, I got a jagged line instead of a smooth line. Your mileage may vary. As well, other patterns called for an inch worth of stitches between the decreases, and I changed it to 6 in order to match the decreases in Step 4. This gives a nice continuous shaping line.

If you want to continue a colour progression smoothly, take note of where your yarn is in the colourway when you first turn and purl back. Then, when you are ready to once again knit the instep stitches, pull out a loop of yarn until you find that place again. Once you've knit a bit and are sure you're happy with it, snip the loop, tuck the ends inside and weave them in.

Many people pick up and immediately decrease an extra stitch in the gusset corners to avoid holes. I can't imagine that this would drastically affect your colour progression, so if you want to do that, go ahead. However, to be completely pure with your stitch count, you can instead wrap the outermost stitch on either side of your instep when you first divide out your heel stitches and then knit the wraps in when you recommence the instep. This eliminates the hole, places any potential wonkiness on the heel flap, and is more in keeping with the spirit of this heel. (I do that for all my heels, and it works a charm.)

When I picked up stitches along the flap the way I usually do, I got very big holes, likely caused because I did not have the benefit of the condensed row gauge from a slipped stitch heel flap. Picking up stitches the pretty way solved this problem.

Enough with the notes; on with the heel.

The Band Heel, in four easy steps.

Step 1: The math.

C = Circumference stitches
H = Heel stitches (C/2)
F = Flap rows (H-16)/2
S = Side stitches (H-10)/2
T = Turning point (H-8)/2 + 2
P = Pick-ups (H-8)/2

Step 2: The flap.

R1: Sl 1, K to end
R2: Sl 1, P to end

Repeat these two rows a total of F times.

Step 3: Shaping the flap.

R1: Sl 1, K S-1, K2tog, K 6, SKP, K S
R2: Sl 1, P to end
R3: Sl 1, K S-2, K2tog, K 6, SKP, K S-1
R4: Sl 1, P to end
R5: Sl 1, K S-3, K2tog, K 6, SPK, K S-2
R6: Sl 1, P to end
R7: Sl 1, K S-4, K2tog, K 6, SKP, K S-3
R8: Sl 1, P to end

(Double check: Count the remaining stitches. It should be H-8.)

Step 4: The turn.

R1: Sl 1, K T, SSK, turn.
R2: Sl 1, P 6, P2tog, turn.
R3: Sl 1, K 6, SSK, turn.

Repeat R2 and R3 until 8 stitches remain.

Sl 1, K to end.

Pick up P stitches along side of flap (one in each slipped stitch). Knit across instep, and pick up P stitches along other side of flap. Knit 4.

You are now back at the beginning of your round, with a total of C stitches.

If you knit this heel, I'd be delighted to hear your feedback.

A Virgin No Longer

2007-08-05T11:24:00.001-04:00

Putting my money where my mouth is, I have embarked upon my quest to make a decent pair of socks from a yarn that doesn't particularly appeal to me.

The Yarn:

I have finally decided to try the Socks that Rock. It's the Rainforest Jasper colourway, light weight, the first selection from last year's sock club. It looks so innocent, this little hank of yarn, but it has earned my designation of a Dugly-Uck for two reasons.

First: I was disappointed when I received this because, despite STR's well-known reputation for flashing and pooling, my first exposure to it is a striping yarn. Even the Queen of the Cool Pool (see here and here) had troubles with this one -- scroll down on that second page to see what I mean. When you accept it for what it is, though, it does stripe quite nicely -- see here. Fine, no fun pooling action; stripes it shall be, and the very best stripes I can make.

Second: The more grievous problem, at least to my eyes, is with the colours. In the hank, they look quite nice, but when knit up , they seem to me to collect into the Very Unfortunate Combination of what appears to be Hospital Wall Green and Diarrhea Brown. I would note all of the selections from last year's club have made their way into Blue Moon's regular rotation -- except this one.

Trying to look on the positive side, though, the colours are not solid. There is a good variation and depth to both the greenish and the brownish. I decided to try to play that up a bit.

The Cuff:

One good way to highlight individual colour spots in a variegated yarn is with slipped stitches. They elongate and draw attention to themselves. The very clever Cable Twist sock pattern from Hello Yarn also lays them on a diagonal, which I think further enhances their effect. This pattern has been on my list of things to do for quite a while, so I was delighted to give it a try.

I think the pattern does a great job of adding little blips of individual colour without obscuring the stripes, while adding a bit of textural interest. I've changed it from a 7-stitch repeat to an 8-stitch repeat to fit my stitch count.

Note: I love working this pattern. It's easy and effective. You know how some people have knit 10 Pomatomus or 12 Monkeys? That's how much I like this pattern. You're likely to see a lot more of it here.

The Heel:

When I want to preserve a particular colour patterning, I generally do a short-row heel because once it's done you're back at your original stitch count and the patterning should continue. However, to fit my foot, I have to do it over two-thirds of the stitches, which leaves only one-third plain on the instep. When I want to maximize an instep pattern, I do a flap and gusset so I can have half of the stitches on the front worked in pattern. The problem with that is that the gusset will distort the colour runs in the yarn and you tend to get something weird going on. I resolved to find a way to get the best of both worlds.

The answer: The band heel. Several patterns on the net use this heel, and Nancy Bush describes one in Folk Socks, I believe. However, it has always seemed a little complicated and cumbersome. I spent a fair bit of time digging through the instructions and simplifying them, and have come up with something that I think works with all stitch counts. (More about that in another post.)

Its big advantage, though, is that you work a flap, shape it, turn the heel, pick up some stitches along the sides of the flap and Presto! you're back at your original stitch count with NO gusset. Any colour weirdness is only on the flap, which is fine by me. It turns out that it fits my foot wonderfully, and you do end up with this cute little band on your heel.

Very cool, indeed.

The Screeching Halt:

I'm back at my original stitch count and, after adjusting my yarn so it resumes at the proper place, both my colour pattern and stitch pattern should continue uninterrupted.

Unfortunately:

... my nice, neat stripes have gone wonky. Crap! I neglected to take into account one Very Important Element.

Here's a test to see if anyone has actually read this far without falling asleep. Do you know where I went wrong? If so, send me an email (address in the side bar) with your answer. I'll put all the correct answers in a hat, draw a name and send the winner a prize. What will the prize be? HA! I'll dig through my stash and send you some guaranteed Dugly-Uck yarn to play with. I dare you to enter!

This calls for drastic action!

Oh, and my thoughts about losing my STR virginity? I am surprised at how thick the fabric is. The yarn certainly feels nice while you're using it, and the socks should end up soft and cushy. Their durability can only be determined after a thorough road test. I'm still confused, though, as to how the light weight and the medium weight can knit up into the same gauge, at least according to the Blue Moon site. I guess I'll have to dig out some ugly medium weight to play with too.

Dugly-Ucks

2007-08-01T11:17:00.000-04:00

I'd like to once again thank my very generous readers for their extremely kind comments about my socks over the last year or so. Several people have commented about how I *always* find such nice colours to knit, etc. I think you're really saying that our tastes coincide, and it's nice to be able to share with people who have similar likes. However, I assure you that I do not *always* find nice stuff. This was brought home to me the other evening when it cooled off a bit and I dug around in the sock yarn stash, looking for something to knit. As I was doing so, it occurred to me that while I do have some nice yarns, there are others that I keep passing over.

You know how sometimes you buy a yarn in a YS and you get it home and wonder what the heck you were thinking? I have some of those.

You know how sometimes you join a sock club and some of the colours they send just don't quite do it for you? I have some of those.

You know how sometimes you buy a yarn off the 'net, but when you get it the colours don't quite match what you thought you saw on your monitor? I have some of those too.

The first time it happened, I thought to myself, "Well, it's just an Ugly Duckling waiting for inspiration." The second time, "Aw, the Ugly Duckling has a nest mate -- that's nice; it won't be lonely." Eventually, the cute aspect of it wore off entirely and, in Criminy Jickets fashion, the Ugly Ducks began to be called Dugly-Ucks. Doesn't sound quite so cute. I'd be digging in the stash and, "Crap, there's that Damn Ugly Yuck again."

That's not a very charitable attitude, I know. I also fully realize that my Dugly-Uck could very well be someone else's favourite colours in the whole wide world, and that's a good thing. However, it also occurs to me that I could be using that yarn as a challenge to either try to make it into something I like, or, conversely, or perhaps perversely, to celebrate its Dugly-Uck-iness and make some blatantly Dugly-Uck socks.

In the cool of that evening, I cast on six new socks. I'm under no pressure to finish them by a certain time, and they'll be there when I feel like knitting on them. Some of them I quite like, and others, well, they're Dugly-Ucks. I'm not sure what I'll do with them yet, but I will do them, just because I felt guilty that they were being left behind.

I can't be the only knitter with a few skeletons in the stash closet. Anyone else have Dugly-Ucks? Want to take up the challenge and knit some Dugly-Uck socks? I think it would be interesting to see how different knitters handle something that takes a bit more inspiration than usual. It could be a great way to try out a new technique without "sacrificing" something you really like. I'd love to see other people's Dugly-Ucks and what they do with them. Brace yourselves, because eventually you're going to see mine.

(Disclaimer: This post is not intended to slam yarn companies, dyers or sock clubs. I definitely believe in, "Different strokes for different folks." )

SAM3 - Final two

2007-07-26T10:49:00.000-04:00

I managed to get two pairs of socks off the needles this month.

I've been working on the blue ones for what? Four months? Five months? I dunno. They've been sitting beside my desk and I would just pick them up and knit a few rounds every now and then. It's Regia No. F2025, a ragg yarn with two strands of dark blue and one each of light blue and beige.

The ribbing at the top is different because I tried to do a pattern, but it was totally obscurbed the the colours in the yarn. I gave up and went plain. I think they took so long because they were kind of boring but, in the end, I'll probably get a lot of wear out of them just because they are plain and boring. Funny how that works, eh.

On the other hand ...

... these ones just flew off the needles.

It's the Winter's End colourway in Ball and Skein. Totally yummy.

I loved watching the colours mingle and play.

I'm glad I've got some more of this in stash. She has some wonderful semi-solids and muted multis. Good stuff, indeed.

That's the end of SAM3. I won't be doing SAM4, because I have other things I want to do, including several UFOs that need to be Fd. Problem is, I just don't feel like doing them right now ... it's too hot and muggy. I tried to cast on some socks last night, but it just felt sticky. Maybe I need to go back to the cotton for a while.

Dishcloth Deluge

2007-07-18T13:44:00.001-04:00

There ain't no way to glam this up, so I'm not even going to try. I was in W*lm*rt the other day and got caught up in the new-to-me colours of Bernat Handicrafter cotton. I went on a discloth spree. Since I've got nothing else, I'm going to share it with you. Aren't you lucky? :-)

Did you know they now make self-striping cotton?

If you want precision, you'll have to stripe it yourself, but it's not too bad. This is a colourway called Country. The pattern is, of course, the Ballband -- ubiquitous, not infamous -- and available lots of places but I used the one from here.

They also have a new colour series out that they call "Naturals." Here's a 4 Corners in Chocolate Ombre, a mix of dark brown, tan and white.

And a Garterlac in Earth Ombre - beige, brown and grey.

Here's something from the "How does that work?" department:

It's the Petal cloth in the Desert Rising colourway. I like the design and what it does for the colours, but I had a few problems with the pattern. As written, for sport weight yarn, it would have come out about the size of a coaster. Once I figured out how it worked, I enlarged it by (a) changing the cast-on to 155 stitches; (b) doing the first purl rows as 31 instead of 21; (c) changing the pattern from K 8, 7, 6... to K 13, 12, 11 .... ; and (d) picking up 14 instead of 9. The pick-up still gave me trouble. The pattern asks that you pick up and purl. I'm not really sure what that means exactly, and I think I did it four different ways. I'm not really happy with any of them. I should have dug out my Horst Schultz books, but I was too lazy. Maybe next time.

Still in the experimental but desert-type mood:

I remembered how much I loved Aija's beautiful adaptation for her Lizard Ridge afghan, so I had to give it a try in Country Brown Ombre. It didn't turn out too bad, and was actually a lot of fun to knit. When you just knit all the rows that don't have short rows, it's quick and easy, and flat instead of bumpy. Very cool.

Then, since I was still in the "How does that work?" department, I tried out that nifty little knitter's magic trick:

Checkerboard Illusions cloth, in green and cream.

By then, I was feeling a little silly and giddy, so I went with it:

Here's a fancy one for when the Queen comes to visit and wants to wash my dishes.

And even sillier:

The Skully cloth. I'm not much into pictures, but this was too cool to resist.

I think I've finally got all that out of my system and shall now return to my socks.

Sock meets butt

2007-07-07T10:15:00.000-04:00

I'm generally a pretty stubborn guy, but man oh man oh man, these socks have been kicking my butt hard.

I wanted to do the Dream Twister Socks designed by the very talented Mona Schmidt, who also designed the popular Embossed Leaves socks published by IK in both the magazine and Favorite Socks. (The pattern is available as a freebie on her blog, and -- Oh! I see she's working on a new one too!!)

I loved the design when I first saw it. Down the sides of the sock are some lovely little wavy things.

And down the front and back is this cool medallion. It actually comes in groups of threes, and you can just see the start of the other two medallions at the bottom of the picture.

The problem? Well, first, it's slow slogging. Very, very slow. What you see above is the result of a week's knitting, and it's all my fault. I kept making silly mistakes, and found it impossible to fix them because of all the twisted stitches and cables. I was cabling without cable needle, and kept losing stitches. I had to re-start at least three times, each time having to do the ribbing all over again. Then I smartened up and put in a lifeline after the ribbing. Presto, bingo, no more mistakes. I decided to use a cable needle when I had to cable near the end of needle, becauses it was safer, and not use one in the middle because it was faster. Yeah, that works, but it's hard to keep track of whether you're going in front or behind the needle, because it's the opposite depending on whether you use a cable needle or not. Since my mind is like a seive right now, I had to look at the chart each and every single time to make sure I was doing it right. The pattern is over three charts, one of which has a different multiple. These ain't tv knitting, my friends.

I finally took some time to admire my work. I stretched it out to admire the design. That's when it kicked me the hardest.

I guess I should have used bigger needles. Maybe 2.5s instead of 2.25s? Sigh. I'll re-do them ... some day. But not now. Now I just want some soothing stockingnette ... round and round and round, with no thinking.

For my future reference, I played with the ribbing set-up so it would flow into the design:

* (K2, P2) x 3, (K2, P4) x 2, (K2, P2) x 3, repeat from *

(when ready to start charts, knit first stitch onto last needle and start with Stitch # 2.)

Because I know that somebody will ask, the yarn is the Smooshy that Allison sent me in the Tea Swap, Good Luck Jade colourway -- very nice stuff!

Petting and Peeving

2007-06-28T22:11:00.000-04:00

Petting

A little while ago, I was one of the winners in a contest that Nora held. The prize? Merino Cashmere Sock yarn which is "cheerfully handpainted" from The Knittery. Their yarn is so yummy that it was on back order for a short while, but it arrived this week. (Although it was indeed just a short while, one of the other winners has already finished a pair of socks with her prize.)

Anyway, mine is now sitting on my desk so I can look at it, and pet it. And pet it. And pet it.

It's gorgeous, and it feels wonderful. Thank you, Nora! The colour, by the way, is Moonlight.

While I was corresponding with Nora and making arrangements, she was amused to note that we Canadians, like Australians, spelled "colour" like ... well, colour. Nora, I hereby promise that I shall savour this glamourous yarn, endeavouring to honour this wonderful favour. Knitting these cool colours will surely help to calm the clamour of everyday life, providing harbour from everyday stresses. I will valourously and rigourously labour to maintain the soothing flavour and demeanour of your gift. In all candour, I hope my skills are sufficient to produce a pattern that truly reflects the vapourous quality and behaviour of Moonlight. Eventually. But first I want to pet it some more.

Peeving

I don't normally rag on people for things, much prefering to live and let live. However, several times this week I've run across something that has raised my rancour. (Ha! Found another one!) People: the word "infamous" does not mean "very famous." According to Webster's, it means "having an evil reputation." It can also be defined as detestable, or, legally, as deprived of certain rights as a citizen, as a consequence of conviction of certain offenses or pertaining to offenses involving such deprivation. More simply, according to the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, it means "when someone or something is famous for something considered bad." If you want to be nice to someone, please don't call them "infamous." If you use that word, you are likely saying the opposite of what you intend. Please save it for Lee Harvey Oswald, or Marilyn Monroe, depending upon which conspiracy theory you follow. Thank you.

Private note to the legal-type people representing Marilyn's estate, her heirs, etc.: The reference above to Marilyn Monroe was a small attempt at humour. (Ha! Even another one!) I by no means believe that Marilyn was involved with UFOs, the Bermuda Triangle, or conspirators. I view her death, and that of RFK, as one of the great tragedies of our time. Thank you for your understanding.