On and off the needles

Oh, you wanted knitting? I can do that, too.

I've had an idea for another sweater for Tadpole bouncing around in my head for a while and last night I actually got around to crunching some of the numbers and casting on.

It doesn't look like much yet but I hope it turns out as cute and clever as it is in my head. And if I'm really good I'll put together a pattern, too.

I was shocked when I counted this morning because I'm more than half-way through the edging on Rock Island.

It's always interesting to follow the progression of memorizing a pattern repeat. I start out staring at the chart for every stitch, then I check every row. A few more repeats along I only look when I think I'm doing something wrong but I keep the chart out the whole time. Several more repeats later, I realize that I'm not looking at the chart at all. And finally, I don't pull out the chart when I grab the project from the knitting basket. 

It would probably be a good idea to throw in a lifeline at this point but I like knitting on the edge.

Forty-two repeats down, twenty-nine more to go. Shoot, I was much happier before I thought of that second figure.

I even have an almost FO to share. After the tornados that hit Alabama a few weeks ago, Elizabeth announced that she was starting Blankets for Birmingham and asked knitters to contribute knitted squares that she would put together into blankets for those who had lost their homes. I'm having fun playing with a new-to-me cotton (Cascade Ultra Pima) and contributing to the cause.

I still need to weave in the ends and block the square (and knit a few more) but this is still good progress.

One more almost FO. I finished the first of my green socks a little while ago but it wasn't until today that I found my favorite sock model ever.

She doesn't always manage to stay upright by herself but she's working on it. Corners help.

So do fists.

All things holey

My sock drawer is having a bit of a crisis: my favorite socks are all developing holes in the heels. It started out with the first pair of Kai-Mei socks that I had knit. Technically, these weren't in the sock drawer; I found them hidden in the closet with a couple of hand-wash only pairs of socks that I decided to wash last night. But they still had very nice almost holes in the heels. (Almost holes = sections that with only the slightest bit of wear will turn into nice big whopping holes, usually a stitch holding on for dear life by only one ply in a 3- or 4-ply yarn.) This morning when I went to grab a pair of socks to wear I noticed that one of my favorites was about to go. They look like these, but in the dusky aurora colorway (these were a gift for my dad a couple of years ago).

It's Gentleman's Shooting Stockings with Fluted Pattern from Nancy Bush's fantastic book Knitting Vintage Socks. I wear these socks all the time and you can definitely tell: the almost hole sits right next to the spot I've already darned on the heel.

Then when I got home this evening and pulled my boots off, I noticed that my shibui Pomatomus socks were looking pretty weak in the heels. I'll bet that they have only a few more wears left in them. Unfortunately, my malabrigo Pomatomus socks have seen better days, too.

This got me thinking, why are all of my favorite socks starting to go now? Then it hit me: I knit these all about two years ago when I was a teaching assistant and had plenty of in-class knitting time (not that I didn't have knitting time in the classes I was taking but that's another story). It seems like all the socks that I knit that semester are on their final stretch. I'd been putting off knitting more socks for me because my sock drawer seemed so full but it seems like it's time to get cracking.

Of course, I have several projects that I want to finish up first and I was able to make some good progress on them this weekend.

The alpaca cardigan is progressing nicely. I've joined the body and arms together and have made it through the first few rounds of raglan decreases.

It still needs a fair amount of work. After I finish the raglan seams, I'm planning a wide (3") ribbed edging up the sides and around the neck. Then it will just need some aggressive blocking on the ribbed sections since I want them to fall in line with the stockinette rather than pulling in like, well, ribbing.

I was most productive on the second of the Venezia pillows. At this point I have about half a chart repeat left before the edging rows. Hopefully I can finish that project up this week. Here's a quick shot of how it looks with the colors reversed:

I may have started a couple of other projects, too, but those will have to wait for another post. I've got a pillow to finish!

Back on track

Or, adventures in trying to accurately photograph a gorgeous sock yarn at night in my apartment.

While it certainly seems like I've been knitting only on my Pea Vines scarf for the last week and a half, I did manage to finish another of the items on my knitting to-do list: Kai-mei. I put down Pea Vines to finish these lovelies partly because I wanted to get a start on Hallett's Ledge since I want to finish the sweater in time to wear it this fall. But the bigger motivation came from the fact that I recently challenged Rachel to a bit of a race to see if we could both finish our Kai-mei socks (and blog about them - that takes a bit longer) before next Wednesday. Hence me pestering DH into taking pictures after dinner last night since we won't have time this weekend for a sock photo-shoot.

Pattern: Kai-mei from Cookie A's fantastic book sock innovation
Yarn: Fiberphile Super Squish Sock in colorway Copper Rose
This is a new-to-me yarn that I picked up as a souvenir on our trip to Maine this past June (if you're in the Brunswick area, be sure to swing by Purl Diva - the shop owner, Ellen, is wonderful and stocks a very choice selection of yarns). It's a superwash merino with instructions to hand wash (presumably because of the dye) that I'll probably ignore since machine-washed socks get worn far more often in this household than hand-washed ones. More importantly, the hand of this yarn is beautiful - slightly drapey but with great stitch definition - and the dye job is absolutely stunning. As you'll hopefully see in the pictures in this post, the yarn just shimmers with washes of reds, coppers, and deep pinky-red shades of rose. It's just gorgeous. Moving along . . .
Needles: size 1 addi lace circulars for magic loop
Mods: None. I just march the little bugs across the top of the foot until they've eaten up all of the ribbing stitches. Then I work one row plain and start the toe decreases. The only important piece to note is that you want to have 17 slipped stitches along the heel flap for picking up gusset stitches. The details on why this matters can be found on my last blog post discussing this pattern.

DH was great last night, trying to get decent shots in artificial lighting last night, and he managed to get some nice ones.

Usually, we were two for three in terms of getting focus, color, and the right amount of light.

 But as you can see, everyone in the household enjoyed the attempt.

Nayyir just loves the camera. He followed us over to the couch, where we had moved to try the light on that side of the apartment, in order to investigate and model a bit more.

There, now you can see a bit more of the yarn's shimmer (even if the color is still off).

The color is closest on this next series (even though the glow doesn't come across quite as much):

Great yarn, great pattern, 'nuff said. Go cheer on Rachel as she finishes hers, too.

The ants go marching one by one

That's really all I can think about whenever I knit Cookie A.'s Kai-Mei sock pattern (this is my second go at it). I just love watching the little lace pattern march across the top of the foot. Something about that progress makes these socks seem quicker to knit than any other pattern. Actually, this is a speedy knit all around - the leg is only moderately high and 3x3 ribbing knits up very quickly. And of course, once you get to the foot, you're done before you know it - the lace is just that fun.

Pattern: Kai-Mei, from Cookie A.'s fantastic book Sock Innovation
Yarn: Shalimar Yarns Zoe Sock in colorway Sprout (I used about 2/3 of the skein on this pair)
Mods: Absolutely none. Just make sure that you have the errata for the pattern (available here).

There is only one part of the pattern that calls for discretion on the part of the knitter and I think it's work a quick note. Cookie doesn't tell you how many rows to knit on the heel flap; she just says to knit for 2 1/4 or 2 1/2 inches. That's great since you can customize for fit, but remember that the lace pattern panel is 15 stitches wide. In other words, a heel flap with at least 17 slipped stitches along the sides will work best. That gives you one stitch for the edge of the heel/bottom of the foot and one stitch to put with the decreases that travel across the foot.

This really is one of my absolute favorite sock patterns and I'd knit it again (and again, and again) in a heartbeat. Actually, I just might have to do that since I've worn holes in the heels of the pair I made for myself last year. As you can see, I exercised an impressive (at least to me) degree of self restraint last week when I put these in the mail and sent them off as a present for my grandmother's birthday.

I wasn't the only one taken by these socks. Nayyir came out to investigate the photo shoot.

The little guy, while quite shy in many respects, really likes hamming it up for the camera. I think he'd make a great model, don't you?

Works in Progress

Oh my. I can't believe how long it has been since I've posted to this blog. My sincere apologies. The last two months have seen some big changes in my knitting life. I finished my second year of law school and began working as a summer associate in BigLaw. Needless to say, I haven't had nearly as much time to knit. But don't think that my new job has kept me away from my knitting needles. Here is a quick peek at what I have been working on:



First off, my latest sock project - Bex (Ravelry link) from Cookie A's new book. I'm using Shibui Sock in colorway Rapids. Those of you who have used Shibui's sock yarn in the past will know that while it has a lovely, sproingy hand and terrific stitch definition, the yarn tends to pool and flash in certain patterns. So you will be very surprised to know that it is not the excessive sunlight in the picture but the pattern itself that is doing such a lovely job of breaking up the colors in the yarn. This is definitely my favorite use of the Shubui to date.



Next up is the first half of a pair of Druid Mitts (Ravelry link) by Jared Flood. This is yet another stunning pattern from Jared of brooklyntweed fame. I'm using some of my 2-ply handspun colonial wool, spun from a braid that I bought during my first visit to MS&W several years ago. I spun this yarn two years ago and point to it as the sign that spinning had finally started to "click" for me.

If you really want to see what I mean, compare this



with this



There you have my very first yarn and my latest project off the wheel.

I've also been working on some mindless, yet strangely satisfying garter stitch. Here is my closest-to-completion current WIP: a tomten.



The sleeve seams are now sewn up and I am ready to start an applied i-cord around the edges. On second thought, I should probably hold off on that until I can get my hands on some buttons. Hopefully there will be a nice selection at the Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair this weekend.

Last, and certainly not least, I've made progress on Lismore.



'Nuff said.

My spinning wheel has started to see some action again in this last week or two as I've begun the second bobbin of a merino/silk blend. If you have suggestions for how to keep the silk from sticking to my fingers when it gets humid (other than not spinning when it's humid), I'd love to hear them.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading.

Ides of March

March 15 is a fateful day. You all remember Shakespeare's "et tu, Brute?" right? Well, March 15 was the day that I fell down in a big way with my 2009 fiber resolution. I don't think I've ever explicitly stated my resolution, which was "minimize fiber acquisitions." Actually, it went more like "see how long you can go without buying any new yarn or spinning fiber." For two and a half months I was doing really well! I was knitting from stash yarn (there is quite a lot of that, as you can probably guess) and had not brought any new fiber of any sort into the apartment. And then the DH and I went to New England to see family this past week. On our drive up the Maine coast we stopped by Purl Diva in Brunswick and I got into a bit of trouble. Ok, a lot of trouble. Four skeins of sock yarn and one skein of malabrigo laceweight. To be fair, three of the sock skeins were for gifts for other people (and more importantly, were gifts that could not have been made with stash yarn) and thus fell within one of the exceptions to my fiber resolution. So the single skein of sock yarn and the little bit of laceweight for me isn't too bad a fall, right? Unfortunately, my camera stayed in my bag during the entire trip so pictures of the new acquisitions will have to wait until I get back home and can pull the skeins out of the checked luggage.

Before I forget, Purl Diva is a gorgeous shop! Amazing yarn selection, great atmosphere, welcoming owner, you name it. I'll definitely be back on my next trip to Maine. (End of shameless plug, but really - great shop and you should definitely go if you are in the area.)

Just in case you thought I was going to ramble on without offering any distractions, here's a quick glimpse of my latest spinning project:



640 yards of approximately aran weight Corriedale/silk that I picked up at the Midwest Fiber & Folk festival last July.

Want more?



Even more?



Yes, I'm shameless and in love with my new yarn. I'm thinking of doing a top-down basic raglan with some sort of a cable running down the center front. A staghorn cable is at the top of my list right now but I'll pull out my Barbara Walker volumes and rummage around to see what else might look good.

I also officially finished Cluaranach a week or so ago. By "actually finished," I mean blocked and snipped the ends. I finished the knitting part of this project back in January but had been dragging my feet on the blocking. Even with blocking wires (and those are certainly a lifesaver), blocking is still quite a chore.





I'm thrilled with the result (although you probably can't see much in these pictures with either too much light or not enough). The yarn is a 70/30 merino/tencel blend that I spun up last spring. Now that it has been blocked, the yarn is absolutely stunning. Modeling shots soon.

To close out, I'll leave you with a pic of my newest pair of socks: Pomatomus. I had been planning to knit up a pair of Scottish Kilt Hose from Folk Socks with some Shibui sock yarn (color: peacock) and then ran into some major issues with color pooling. After frantically trying to save the kilt hose, I gave up and switched the yarn over to Pomatomus. I'm wearing the finished product right now and I'm happy to say that they looked very fetching going through airport security.

Plugging away

Now that the holidays are over - no, wait, I still have one last gift to finish up (sorry, sis, your sweater is growing and should be done soon). Let me start over: now that the holidays are mostly over, my knitting seems to have slowed down a bit. This is not to say that I have not been knitting but rather that some of the frenzy has dissipated. I have actually been knitting quite a bit.

I finished a pair of socks.



Trust me, there are two. Unfortunately (for me, fortunately for him) my husband grabbed them, wore them, praised them, and threw them in the laundry before I had a chance to take a picture of the finished product. The yarn is Briar Rose Grandma's Blessing, a lovely cushy sport-weight superwash.

Actually, I finished another pair of socks recently. This one is Nancy Bush's Gentleman's Sock with Fluted Pattern (or something like that) from her book Knitting Vintage Socks. The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy, color Black Parade.







As much as I liked wearing this pair for the modeling shoot, I exercised self restraint and shipped them off to my father. He called as soon as he got the package and asked for more; my favorite response when I gift hand knits.

I haven't confined myself to socks over the past few weeks. I have nearly finished Cluaranach (ravelry link) and started Frost Flowers and Leaves. The knitting is done on Cluaranach; the shawl just needs blocking.

Now, I have a last picture to whet your appetite for next time:



About a month ago, I got an air mail package and hid it in the back of a closet. When Christmas came around I wrapped it up and gave it to the DH. He opened it up, oohed and aahed, and gave it back to me. Let's just say that this gift could be described as "some assembly required."

Where did the summer go?

One answer to that question is spinning. I finally was able to enjoy some quality time with my wheel over the last few weeks and produced this:



310 yards of sport-weight superwash Corriedale 2-ply in color Burning Bush from Spunky Eclectic.

This week I have slowly been turning that ball into socks for a Christmas present for my FIL. I have learned my lesson: if I want to give knitted Christmas gifts, I have to start in August.



Before the Corriedale, I spun up 950 yards of merino/tencel laceweight in a gorgeous purple that is now becoming the petite version of Anne Hanson's Cluaranach (Ravelry link). Pictures of that to come later when I can get some sun.

Oh, I also started Kate Gilbert's Wisteria a couple of days ago. I was knitting happily along the collar chart yesterday morning when I realized that I had twisted the second set of 2x2 crosses in the wrong direction 6 rows back. I thought for a brief moment about leaving it and calling it a design element but my perfectionist side got the better of me and I ripped. It was a good thing I did since I learned something pretty nifty about the Malabrigo worsted single that I am using. In addition to spit-splicing incredibly well, Malabrigo is also easy to rip! The stitches do not drop at all; they just sit right where they are supposed to be until you put them back on the needle. Hopefully I will not have to take advantage of that particular property of the yarn too much more.

Pictures of Wisteria? Not yet - still waiting for the sun to come in.

Tough Choice

Husband and I are off to TNNA in a few hours. Both he and my bank account are very grateful that I will not be able to purchase any of the lovelies that we see. However, I do have another dilemma: what knitting to bring? You know the deal - I want something that I can whip out of my bag and knit a few stitches here and there but it also has to be suitably impressive. I dug the front of Cromarty out of the bottom of my knitting basket to work on when knitting with a friend last weekend. I was a bit too distracted chatting while trying to figure out where I was in the chart that I had to frog the rows that I had knit and go back to where I had stopped months ago (and I honestly could not tell you when I last worked on this piece.

Here is a picture of the back from last summer. Subtract a row or two and that is about how far along I am on the front.



After last weekend, Cromarty will not be my bag knitting on this trip; rather, it will stay in the hotel. So, back to the drawing board. The perfect carry-around knitting is, after all, socks. So I thought I would bring this along to play with.



Remember my dyeing adventures from a couple weeks ago? This is the final product. I kept trying to get out on the deck and take a picture in unfiltered sunlight but we seem to have attracted a very large bee whose sole purpose in life appears to be zooming around our deck. Perhaps it likes residual fumes of furniture stain from when we refinished a couple of tables a few weeks ago. In any case, it has taken over the deck and I have stopped trying to venture out since it zooms at the door whenever I open it.

If you will excuse me, I am off to pull out Barbara Walker and swatch.

Cold Feet

I was lazy this morning; there is just no other way to describe it. I was working in the study and complaining to myself how my toes kept getting cold and how awful that was (insert grumbling about how it is supposed to be warm on the second-to-last day in May). The smart thing to do would have been to get up and walk down the hall to the dresser in the bedroom and grab a pair of socks. But no, I was lazy, and just grabbed the recently finished hand-knit sock that was sitting on my desk. Good, one foot was warm. Another hour or so goes by and the toes on my bare foot start to feel like icicles. Do I get up and go find a complete pair of socks? No. But I do spy another lone hand-knit sock over on the bookcase and thus solve my problem. With this:



On the left is plain stockinette from Lorna's Laces, color: Pioneer (and yes, I still have to weave in the ends). On the right is a super-comfy merino/cashmere/nylon blend from Creatively Dyed.

See? Second sock syndrome can actually help keep your feet warm. To be fair, the mate of the sock on the right is on the needle and almost done and the Lorna's Laces mate is slated to start when that one is finished.