Kaleidoscope # 2

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

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

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

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

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

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!!

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

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!

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!

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

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.