Two by Two

Two hats for the homeless are done, with a third one newly cast on.

And I'm sure you'll recognize the international symbol warding off the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome.

So far, so good. Stay tuned.

It's a Sock!

Well, lookee here, it's a sock!

And it's a beautiful sock. Admire that heel.

Cast your eyes over the stripy sole.

Nice, huh? I think so. I could do without the purl line every 5 rows on the calf (in fact, once I got past the heel, I forgot to do it; definitely a design feature), and I wish the calf section were a little longer, but nonetheless, I like it. And since it took less than 50 grams of the 150 grams of merino I dyed, I guess I could knit three of these, if I really wanted.

Naw, I'll knit just a pair. But then I think I'll find some nifty merino/nylon dark blue combo and knit me a pair of two-tone socks with the leftovers - you know, with the toes and heels in sturdy dark blue, and the rest in gaudy stripes. Maybe even knit them from the toe up, so I can use every last bit of this jazzy yarn. Plus, that way I can skip the Kitchenering at the toe. I Kitchenered all right, but I have the distinct impression that while my threaded needle was going in and out of stitches in the right direction, in the right order, and that all will hold together, still I have my doubts about where the yarn was going between the stitches. I'll go look at some more instructions and see if I can figure it out by Sock #2.

By the way, how come this sock looks so good on my foot, and so completely badly proportioned off? Doesn't that foot look way too long to you?

Look Back, Look Forward

I’ve been really absent-minded lately. I completely spaced out going to a work meeting out of the office Monday morning, even though I’d been reminded of it on Saturday. I sent a work email to the wrong person (hey, their last names are very similar). I haven’t remembered to renew my New England Wild Flower Society membership nor my Dragonfly Society of the Americas membership. I meant to vacuum this past weekend (and if you believe that…). I forgot to tell you yesterday that one of my co-workers has just announced she’s expecting her first child in August; I ordered yarn already for a baby blanket, but I forgot to tell you about that.

In fact, I forgot that I’ve been blogging for more than a year already!

I thought I had started last April, with Flashing My Stash. But no, in fact I had started several weeks prior to that. So, happy blogiversary to me!

And that means it’s time to assess the past year, to say thanks and blow kisses to all my knitting companions [really, thank you! smooch, smooch, all of you!], and to resolve to do better, whatever that means, next year.

Yeah, right.

Well, actually, I am accomplishing some of my goals for this year. I have turned the heel on my first sock.

It even fits, so far!

I have cut down on my driving and my electricity usage. I've read seven non-knitting books, been to three cultural events (OK, one was a quilting and weaving exhibit, but it was in a gallery, so that counts, right?), I've been knitting away on hats for the homeless, I'm getting there on all sorts of goals.

But in looking over the past year, I've discovered something about myself. According to this blog, I started 30 knitting projects in the past year (we'll just skip the spinning stuff for now). I finished 27 projects, 22 of which were for others (presents, knitting for charity). Not bad, you say? Well, of the 27 projects I finished, eleven were hats for Afghans for Afghans, the vast majority of which I had knit before I started blogging. So, we're down to 16 projects finished last year, eleven of which were for others.

What happened to the projects I didn't finish? Well, some were too small.

Some were too big.

I may have turned the heel on this sock, but it definitely doesn't fit me.

Some weren't turning out the way I envisioned. For example, when I knit this yarn to its listed gauge, the resulting fabric is too flimsy for what I have in mind.

This afghan-like thing is supposed to turn into a felted rug, but I think the stripes are too wide, too contrasting, and lack subtlety for the look I was seeking.

That's supposed to look like this:

I started a Lizard Ridge with Noro Kureyon and my hand-spun, but my hand-spun was a good bit thicker than the Kureyon and I didn't like the effect. This needs to be either all Kureyon, as the pattern specifies, or all hand-spun.

Some had minor boo-boos that I put aside so I could fix later, but I never got back to them.

Some need real thought applied, before I can proceed. This was designed as a tank, but I want to add sleeves.

Interesting, isn't it? Apparently, I am easily stymied by little obstacles along the way.

I also discovered this year that I love being obsessed. I loved going to Rhinebeck and meeting Knittyheads at WEBS and learning to spin and hoarding yarn and making lists of projects to knit and reading everyone's blogs. Sure, I'd love to be the sort of knitter who finishes everything, or one who writes beautifully, or at least consistently, a blogger whom everyone reads, a knitting designer of extraordinary work, someone of note. But I'm not of note, I'm just me. I can tell that, to get 'better' at any of this, I'd have to devote much more time and energy than I have available. Right now, I get a lot of knitting in, but it's fairly mindless knitting, because I'm knitting at the doctor's office, or with friends, or on the train, or at the end of an exhausting day at work. Those aren't times when I can really apply myself, really concentrate on fixing a mistake or designing sleeves or even frogging back something that's too small or too big.

I'd like to resolve to make time for thoughtful knitting, but frankly, I doubt it'll happen. And, frankly, that's a little discouraging. While there's nothing really wrong with my life right now, it's really hitting home that my lifetime is limited, that I can only accomplish so much in the time I have left [don't fret; I easily have twenty or thirty years to go].

My choices: relax, enjoy myself, knit mindlessly and happily. Or, listen to that little nagging voice inside that says: Do something worth doing. I guess in this next year of blogging, you and I will both find out which path I choose.

There's Nothing Like a Deadline

OK, now I believe it's really spring. Whew!

A week's worth of knitting has netted me a little more Moderne Log Cabin blanket. We're up to 28 inches by 44.5 inches. Some of you may remember it was 30 x 39 last week; this time I guarantee an accurate measurement. This is getting to be a heavy sucker to move around every time I need to start a new row.

Look, it's a sock cuff! And look how nicely my hand-dyed yarn is spiraling around and around. It even fits! I might just be hooked on sock-knitting. Or on dyeing. Or itty-bitty needles. Or something.

Finally, here we have a hat and a quarter, knit with elann's Sierra Aran wool/alpaca yarn, using Sally Melville's Canadian-Winter Hat pattern from her book, The Purl Stitch. I have four balls of this green in my stash, which I think will be enough for three such hats. Why am I knitting three matching very warm hats, just as spring arrives? Well, on May 30th, the Yarn Harlot is coming to WEBS, on tour to promote her newest book, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off. I intend to be there, of course! (And if you want to go, you have to go tell WEBS here that you're coming. And then you have to tell me, so we can meet up and be groupies together.) She is soliciting hats for the homeless as part of her tour; I have sworn to knit five hats for charity this year. Thus, I am knitting madly away on very warm, very green, very Canadian hats.

Oh, and I may have bought ten balls of Hempathy in blue, with which to make Norah Gaughan's Lacy Waves Top (scroll down a bit) from the book, Lace Style. I can't imagine how that happened.

It's been a busy week.

Just in Time

Given that the birdfeeders looked like this yesterday, it's probably a good thing I finished these:

Yarn: Trekking XXL colorway #51.
Pattern: Fortissima "Socka-To-Me" Gloves, from Skacel, with lots of minor modifications so they fit my hands exactly. I like these gloves, but because of the nylon in the yarn, they are a little hard. Perhaps they will last longer, though.

In other news, the Lamb's Pride Moderne Log Cabin now measures about 30" by 39", with lots of yarn left to go. Now, does this qualify for Resolution #6? It's not a sweater, but it does have many colors, and it certainly is just as much knitting as a sweater. Hmmm.. a moral dilemma, if I've ever seen one.

I really like the texture of this blanket, although I must admit that I get very sick of knitting entire skeins of one color of garter stitch at this point.

Finally, I cast on for the sock pattern that came in the Louet sock-dyeing kit. So far, so good. I tried knitting these on my 6" bamboo Size 2s, but the needles are too long; they kept getting caught in the sweater I was wearing. So I went back to these 5-inch-long bendable pastic needles, but I think I'll try to pick up a set of 5-inchers in bamboo. WEBS has 4-inch-long size 2 "glove needles" in recycled ebony that I eyed for a bit this week, but the set is $15 and I just couldn't justify that much.

All Tuckered Out

What does that look like to you? Yup, that's what happens when knitters gather together. Our dear Emily of my LYS, Emily's Needleworks, hosted a party for a bunch of us hard-core addicts this past weekend. We came, we ate, we knit, we ate, we laughed, we ate, we knit some more, we ate till I couldn't stand it any more.

And we dyed yarn. Emily had ordered each of us one of Louet's pre-packaged sock-dyeing kits. Each kit has three 50-gram skeins of Gems Merino (enough for a pair of socks, instructions for which are included), three different shades of a base color (red, blue, green, pink, or brown), a squirt bottle, wool wash, and instructions. Basically, you soak the yarn, mix up the dyes one at a time, squirt them on the yarn, package the dyed yarn up in plastic wrap and freezer bags, nuke them for four minutes on a side, hang to dry, and wash out the excess the next day. Very simple. My only complaint was that three of the 15 kits were missing something. One kit was missing all three dyes, one had a duplicate of one shade, and I forget what was wrong with the third. So, if you try this at home, check your kit as soon as you get it. You can betcha that Emily is having a nice chat with Louet pronto.

Here are blue skeins:

And green skeins, much more varied:

Emily and I shared two kits, one blue and one red. Here's the front of my three skeins:

And the back side. I like it. I like it a lot. I may just have to take up dyeing, among my other fiber obsessions.

I almost finished my gloves...

The Lamb's Pride blanket has tripled in size, too, but it's at a stage where it's hard to photograph. You'll just have to wait. I have sock yarn to knit up.

Frigging Computer

Well, I had a lovely, long, witty post for you, but then my computer froze up and everything refused to work for an hour or so. Frigging computer. I promise to get it fixed this week, even if it involves a sledgehammer. I’m eating jellybeans now (11:03 AM) to ward off further problems – what, you don’t know about the medicinal properties of jellybeans? I find them quite helpful in dispelling the terminal grumpies.

So, where were we? Pardon my brevity, but I’ve already written about this in greater detail this morning and I’ll be damned if I’ll recreate that now-etherized post.

Two weekends ago, Sue and I went to SPA in Portland, Maine. We had a blast. We stayed with Sue’s brother, Chris, and his wife, Elaine, both of whom knit, as evidenced below.

I wish I had more photos of Elaine's projects; she must have six or seven going at once.

Why, yes, that IS a Red Heart afghan Chris is so near to finishing up. We gave him permission to use the good stuff next. Of course, maybe it just runs in the family; here's Sue knitting a poncho. She said it was for her six-year-old niece. We all pretended to believe her.

Sue using her brother for the traditional purpose, below, at SPA. Note the very manly (i.e., drab, yet tasteful) sock that Chris is knitting.

We ate, we drank, we bought yarn, we knit, we watched movies, we drank some more, we knit some more. A perfect weekend. As proof, I’ll show you this Finished Object, the first one, I believe, of 2007.

Knit of two balls of Louisa Harding Impression (the lovely frothy mohair/nylon confection) and one ball of Louisa Harding Kimono Ribbon (nasty nylon ribbon; I hated every squeaky, teeth-gritting moment of knitting this stuff), this scarf ended up being a tad over eight feet long. I was aiming for six feet when I cast on the long way, but, hey, I didn’t count the stitches, this was just supposed to be a fun, frilly, bright, cheerful, mindless knit for the dregs of mid-winter. It has three inches of garter stitch in random stripes of Impression and Kimono Ribbon, then a row of increasing in every other stitch, followed by a row of increasing in every stitch, followed by a half-inch or so of more garter, finished off by using the crochet cast-off from both ends towards the middle of the edge, where I had ran out of yarn. Fun, bright, cheerful, all right, but also, this doesn’t really work with any of my winter coats, the ribbon yarn is scratchy on my neck, and the knitting seemed to drag on forever. I’d guess that by the end, I was casting off around a thousand stitches in that last row. What I learned from this FO: Knit what is really worth knitting; don’t waste your time on projects that aren’t pleasing you.

You may remember my Celtic Dreams sweater, the one I vowed to finish before SPA. Well, I haven’t touched it since my last post, but I promise, assuming the computer toads let me post this note, to get back to it today.

In the meantime, I’ve been spinning up this yarn.

About 880 yards of worsted weight, this is a two-ply yarn – one ply is my handspun from a mystery braid I bought from Susan’s Fiber Shop at Rhinebeck last year (probably domestic wool, hand-dyed, 8 ounces); the other ply is four solid colors of Paton’s Kroy sock yarn, 85% wool 15% nylon, that was cluttering up my stash. Aren’t you proud of me for reducing my stashes of yarn and fiber at the same time? I worry that the darker skein is less tightly plied than the lighter skein, but I'll cope, I'm sure.

I’m hoping to pair this with the three skeins below of Araucania Magallanes to make Jillian Moreno’s Boo, Too, from Knitty. I saw Jillian wearing this, or something very like it, at Rhinebeck last year and I’ve been coveting it ever since.

Finally, I had another inspiration for reducing my yarn stash. I have 15 or so skeins of left-over Lamb’s Pride Worsted in several colors, most of which I have absolutely no memory of buying. It occurred to me that I could knit up this jumble into a Mason-Dixon Moderne Log Cabin blanket; here’s my progress thus far, with the remaining skeins close to hand.

I doubt if I’ll be able to use up all the gold and red in this tending-towards-cool-colors spread, but I’ve set myself the challenge of using up all the rest of this yarn in this project. Earle has already been admiring it, so maybe he’ll get it for his birthday in late May. I must say, I really love knitting with Lamb’s Pride Worsted; it just slips through my fingers like butter and the texture of it made into garter is both substantial and nicely drapy. There’s a reason why this yarn has been around forever.

Oh! One more thing: Only eight fingers/thumbs to go….