It felt like a minute

Oh, Friends, where has the time gone? I'm having difficulty believing that I've been gone as long as I have, but so it is. Last time I wrote, I talked about my disappointing State Fair results, and showed you the beginning of a sock I was making for my mother-in-law. I've since completed the sock and three other projects.

First, the sock: it's the Rhombus pattern from CookieA's Knit Sock Love book. It ended up taking about six weeks to finish, and I ended up running out of yarn about 2.5" before I could close up the toes. A kind Raveler sold me a second skein of the gorgeous Sundara Sock, which allowed me to finish with enough left over to make some socks for myself.

Next I decided that I would make a point of knitting up the oldest yarn in my stash, partly as a way to clear out some space in my bins and partly as a challenge to myself. While I have a whole lot of some mohair boucle that I bought at a fiber festival some years ago, I knew I could find a pattern for the silk/bamboo hand-dyed sport weight that's been in my stash nearly as long. Anyway, believing that I had a mere 450 yards of this yarn, I cast on for the Glitz at the Ritz shawl, which I thought would use up both skeins. I got through nearly the whole shawl before I realized that I'd underestimated the yardage of the skeins, leaving me with nearly the whole second skein upon completion of the shawl.

Knowing that I likely didn't have enough yardage remaining to make another triangular shawl, I decided that a rectangular scarf would be the way to go. I could cast on and knit until I ran out of yarn, hoping that the yarn's slinkiness would help once it was washed and blocked. I used the Shimmer Wave scarf pattern, which had an easy-to-memorize repeat and traveled well. I mostly worked on it during my commute to work every day and occasionally in meetings and waiting rooms. It took a mere three weeks to complete, and I've already given it to a coworker.

Lastly, I restarted the Streymoy sweater I'd had so little success with last winter, but I think I'll save that for next time. There's a lot to tell! Until then.

There: I fixed it.

Oh, Friends, I fixed that damned sock! I undid the messed up part, re-did it, undid it again, and finally re-did it correctly. Once I took a good look at the photos of the sample and wrapped my head around how the foot of the sock would come together, the knitting went pretty quickly.

I think I might have gotten back on the right track on Friday or Saturday, and by yesterday afternoon I'd finished the toe. The foot section ended up being a little longer than I'd expected, so I had to graft the toe closed a little sooner than I would usually have done. It's not a big deal though; I have a pretty wide foot.

There were what felt like a million ends to weave in, as the sock is constructed from 12 triangles that are knit from the outside in to the center. So that's 27 ends, if you're counting the cuff and the toe in that number, and that's before you close up all the gaps where the corners of the triangles meet.

Now, the thing is, right now I've only got one complete sock. I'm not going to start its mate just yet because the yarn for my State Fair socks just arrived, and I've been dying to start these. I took last year off from Fair knitting, as I'd won the points total the year before. Last year, my thinking was that it wouldn't be as much fun entering if I couldn't win the big prize again. This year, I've decided that I like seeing how my work does compared to my peers across the state. I have a couple friends who have a category that they consistently win, and I kind of feel that the socks category is mine. I don't want to get a big head or anything (maybe it's too late?), but I did win the last two times I entered and the socks that won last year placed behind mine the two previous years. I want my ribbon back, y'all.

I'm not going to reveal the pattern until I've submitted the socks to the Fair, so this might be the last time I mention them for a couple months. I will, however, show you the yarn, which is freaking gorgeous. It's Dream in Color Smooshy, in the Melon Bomb colorway. I think it a little more coral in real life, rather than the slightly muted hue in the photo. I only ordered it on Friday, so I'm really pleased that it was waiting for me when I got home from work today.

So that's it for this evening, Friends. I have new socks to start! Until next time, then.

Tap...tap...Is this thing on?

Oh, Friends, I've meant to write. Really, I have. Usually it's 20 minutes before I go to bed and I think to myself, "I should write about that on the blog." And then I tell myself I'll do it tomorrow and the next thing you know, it's nearly three months before you actually compose a new post.

Since late December I've been training for a 25K (15.5 miles) race, which I completed last weekend. Well, when I say "completed," what I really mean is that I had run 12 miles when it was made clear to me that I might not make it to the finish line within the allotted time, so I called it a day at that point. I'm certainly disappointed that I didn't go the whole 15.5 miles, but I've never run 12 miles in my life, so I can chalk that up to a personal best. At least now I know a half marathon is not outside my realm of possibility, so I might consider signing up for an autumn half marathon.

So what with running four days a week and cross training for two, I didn't have a whole lot of time (or energy) for knitting, much less writing about knitting. Since I last posted, I've come to an impasse on the Streymoy sweater. Once I got it to the armpits, I tried it on my husband and discovered that it's going to be much too big. I was also going to run out of yarn, but that's not an insurmountable problem. Four inches too big is too damned big. Now I'm just working up the courage to rip it out and start over. At least I have until next winter to get it done.

Once the race was over, I had a chance to do a little yarn shopping. I got to check out seven (!) yarn shops while I was in North Carolina for the race, and the standout of the bunch was Warm 'N Fuzzy in Cary. There were so many of my favorite yarns: Stonehedge Fiber, Quince & Company, Fibre Company, Dale of Norway. There were plenty of others that were new to me, so I had a difficult time deciding what to get. I ended up getting two skeins of Fibre Company Canopy fingering and a skein of String Theory Caper Sock. There was a lot more I wanted, but I was pretty much over my yarn budget, so I had to exercise a little restraint.

On the way home from our trip, I worked on a my Feminine Lace socks, from Stephanie van der Linden's book. They're coming along just fine, but once I got about halfway through the leg chart, I realized I'd knit a pattern very similar to this at least twice before. I'd show it to you here, but I don't seem to have photographed it yet. I'll do it for next time.

Until then, Friends.

Slow & Steady as she goes.

Holy smokes! It's been two weeks since I posted last. I can't really say that I've had that much going on, so I'm a little surprised so much time has passed. Anyway, I've made good progress on my Rafters cardigan: I've completed the waist shaping and only have the bottom border to do before I can start on the sleeves and the collar/buttonband. The cardigan doesn't really have any ease right now, but I think that once the button band is on and I can get the whole thing washed and blocked, the cables will loosen up some and I'll end up with about 1.5" of positive ease. I'm still in love with the color and I can't say enough about how soft this yarn is. I just want to pet it all day long. The cat is still in love with it too. Today he was rubbing his face on it and licking the bag I store it in. He's a strange little beastie.

I've also made progress on Dan's Scylla socks. I finally turned the heel this week, and now only have the leg to finish. The great part of that is that the stitch pattern knits up quickly, without a whole lot of thought. Since Dan's so tall, I'm just going to knit until I run out of yarn. We'll see in a hurry whether I divided the hank evenly.

So it's a short post tonight, Friends. Thanksgiving is coming up soon, and there's a chance I'll get to see the Yarn Harlot when I'm home in Fort Wayne for the holiday. I'll probably limit myself to the Saturday night lecture and skip the classes. I'll post pics if it happens. Until next time.

MUCH better, thank you.

These new socks are coming along a whole lot better than the other ones. I mean, A WHOLE LOT BETTER. The pattern is the Java socks from the Winter 2011 Knitty. I'm sure a big part of why these socks are coming out so well is that I'm actually following a pattern as written, but I think another reason is that these socks have an 84-stitch round. It's only 4 stitches more than the other socks, but there's a world of difference in how the colors are pooling. Like, almost not pooling at all. It's very subtle.

I still have a few more inches to go before I turn the heel, and the pooling will definitely change as I work on the gussets, so there's that to look forward to. I'm not especially worried about it, but I like the way the legs are coming out, and I hope the foot will look as good.

So tonight's post is a short one. I hope I'll have more to tell next time. Until then, Friends.

Some catching up to do!

For the last few posts, I've been promising that I would post some photos of my finished Amaya sweater, and today I'm finally doing it! See:

A finished sweater! It really was very easy knitting. If I could change anything (which is not going to happen), I would probably have gone down a needle size (or maybe even two), as the finished sweater really grew after washing. I even put it in the dryer in the hopes of shrinking it some, but I think it's just in the nature of the bamboo rayon be slinky. And heavy. Anyway, it's cute enough, and I'll just have to make sure I wear a little something underneath it since the fabric is a little sheer to wear unlayered.

I've also finished my Frankenanklet, made from sock yarn leftovers. Three of the yarns are ones I purchased at Sock Summit in the hopes of making something for myself and the fourth was from a skein I bought in Ft. Wayne. These socks were pretty simple knitting, even if they were done two-at-a-time on size 0 needles. I knit them toe-up until I ran out of yarn, then added the next yarn and the next until I had a pair of anklets. It was pure accident that a color change happened at the heel flap - I couldn't have planned it, but I'm glad it worked out that way. I may do this again with yarn scraps, but the next ones will probably have more color changes, as most of the leftovers I have now are shorter lengths. But what would I name them, now that I've used Frankenanklet? I'll have to think on that one.

I've also made a little more progress on my Columbines needlepoint. There's just a little more of the background left to finish and then I can move on to the border! I actually had to run out to the needlepoint shop to pick up one more skein of the background color - I was so close to finishing! I'm just grateful that the new skein is in the same dye lot. Whew!

Well, that's it for today, I think. Next time, I can tell you about my current knitting WIPs and maybe I'll have more progress on the needlepoint. Until then, Friends!

The socks are finished!

And I've started a new pair, even though I wasn't really feeling it.

But first, the socks I've finally managed to finish: I got the Rick socks off the needles and into a cold bath on Wednesday night. It seems like once I was able to get past the frustration of having had to rip out a week's work made the second time around go a whole lot faster. It also helped that I followed the freaking chart. The best thing about those socks, though, is the color. I had no idea when I bought that yarn at Sock Summit (two years ago!) that I would love the color so much. I'm sure it has to do with their being dyed with indigo and other natural dye colors. There's a softness to the colors that I find really appealing. Since I have to send these socks away, I'm determined to have something for myself in this yarn. As soon as I have a few bucks, I'll order some more from the folks at A Verb for Keeping Warm, maybe in DK-weight, and make myself a cowl or a shawl or something. I also like how squishy & soft these socks are after washing and blocking. I think my aunt is really going to love them.

The new socks are Stephanie van der Linden's It's Tea Time, knit from the skein of Sanguine Gryphon Skinny Bugga that I purchased at Sock Summit (actually, all three pairs of socks my mom guilted me into making came from yarn I bought there). The color is Golden Orb Weaver, which I knew I had to buy as I had just seen that cool tapestry at the Art Institute of Chicago at the beginning of that trip. These socks seem to be moving along quickly due to the simple knit/purl patterning and absence of lace and left/right charts. The yarn is knitting up beautifully. One sock has a hint of pooling, but I think it will be alright. There's not much I can do about it anyway. It's not like I'm going to rip back 4" of leg if I don't have to. If I'm especially diligent, I could finish these in less than three weeks and then I can knit whatever I want with NO DEADLINES. Right now, I don't know what that would be, but I'm thinking it will be a new spring sweater for myself.

Anyway, that's all I have for now, Friends. Until next time.

The socks are done. Long knit the socks.

I finished the Elm socks last week and immediately cast on the Rick socks from Sock Innovation. I'm knitting the new socks from A Verb for Keeping Warm Creating sock yarn in color No. 9. The colors are a gorgeous indigo and lovely purple that's knitting up into beautifully mottled socks that I wish were going to be mine, but are probably going to belong to one of my aunts in Japan.

You see, my mother is pretty sneaky. When she was here for a visit last Thanksgiving she asked if I would make her a pair of socks, and I said I'd do it as soon as my Christmas knitting was finished. Then she asked if I would mind making a second pair for my aunt, who just loved the socks my mom had given her (that I had knit for mom). How could I say no to that? Someone who appreciates my knitting definitely gets more.

Anyway, I had happily finished the Elm socks, and happily started the Rick socks, when my mom called to check in. "Oh, I'm working on the second pair, and as soon as they're done, I'll put them in the mail to you."

"Great! Are you making a pair for me?"

I thought I had been making a pair for her. Turns out I was making a pair for each of her sisters, so now I'm on the hook for a third pair of socks. That will probably be knit from Skinny Bugga. That I'd intended to knit up for myself. But I like knitting. I like knitting. I like knitting even better when I get to knit for myself again.

Until next time, Friends.

This week on the needles:

It can't be any surprise that I'm working on a pair of socks now that the Christmas knitting is finished. When my mother was here for Thanksgiving, she asked if I would make another pair of socks for her. She couldn't have had any idea how under-the-gun I was feeling about finishing the gifts on time, but how in the world could I say no to my mother? I couldn't, so the two of us went through my sock yarn stash looking for superwash yarns that suited her taste. We eventually narrowed the choices down to two, but that was where she got stuck. She couldn't decide between a skein of Miss Babs Windsor (sadly, discontinued) in Light Clematis and the two skeins of A Verb for Keeping Warm superwash sock in color No. 9. Her solution? Would I make two pairs of socks? One for her and one for her sister?

So I've gotten started on CookieA's Elm sock, from The Knitter's Book of Socks by Clara Parkes. The nice thing about the pattern is that it's a relatively quick knit, with simple increases and decreases creating the interest on the leg and instep. I've been knitting these socks two-at-a-time, and after just two short weeks I've turned the heels and am nearly finished with the gusset decreases. Depending on how much time I have to work on them, I hope to have them finished by this time next week.

Another thing I have on my needles is the Sea Cucumber draftstopper from a blog called Jurisdiction of Nifty. It's a simple cable pattern knit a very tight gauge that I'm making out of some leftover Cascade 220 I've had in my stash for a long while. I expect to be able to finish it fairly quickly, but the tight gauge is a little rough on my hands, so I work on it intermittently and massage my hands right after.

That's all for tonight, I think. Until next time, Friends.

Socks finished, socks started

I think last time I posted I said I'd photograph the FrankenScylla socks and post them this time, so here goes! One day last week I got my husband to hold still for a few minutes so I could get pictures of his feet in the socks (in daylight, even!), because I think socks look better with feet in them. Anyway, he put them on and moved each of his feet this way and that, and then said to hurry up because he'd had just about enough. The whole photo shoot took all of 3 minutes. Maybe 4. Anyway, the socks got photographed, so my job there is done. Way to take one for the team, honey.

In other sock knitting news, I've finally started the Salted Caramels socks, these intended for my father-in-law. I'd been told by my mother-in-law that he prefers blues or greys in his socks, so you can imagine my surprise when I discovered I didn't have the appropriate yarn in my stash! I made a point of checking out all my local yarn shops, none of which had quite the right yarn. (There was plenty of lovely sock yarn, just not the right yarn for this project.) I also took a look at a couple shops in Bloomington & Nashville, Indiana, when we were in the neighborhood a few weeks ago, but struck out there too. I finally ended up ordering two skeins of Cascade Heritage from an online seller: the Heritage yarn is a smooth superwash yarn with good stitch definition and generous yardage that would be just right for the pattern. I got the charcoal grey which I think will be a good neutral so George can wear them with just about everything.

Since I probably won't see him before Christmas and he won't be able to try these socks on as I knit them, I'm taking a few chances on the fit. My husband reckons that the medium size will be right for the legs, and his mother told me George's shoe size, so I feel pretty confident about that. Mostly I was worried about how the cuff was going to fit, so I decided not to do the folded cuff specified in the pattern. After looking around on the internet for a little while I decided that Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Cast On would be the way to go.

I watched the video a couple (dozen) times and cast on, and let me tell you, that's a freaking challenging cast on. For the first sock I probably tightened my stitches too much, which made knitting the first round of 1x1 rib, um, difficult. I was actually a little frustrated with it - so much so that I nearly didn't finish that first round. But once I got going on the ribbing and saw how very stretchy this cuff was going to be, I decided I would give it another shot for the second cuff. On that one, I felt good about the tension on the stitches, but then I made a mistake in the ribbing in the first round and made a discovery: you can't un-knit the first round with this cast on. I ended up just cutting the yarn and starting over. Once I got through that first round, it was smooth sailing. I think if you haven't learned this cast on yet, you should definitely try it with thicker yarn and bigger needles. I do not recommend learning this cast on with thin yarn and size 0 needles. I might have polished off a whole bottle of wine after that first cuff. (I don't really remember, but it may be why I wasn't unwilling to start the second one.)

Anyway, once I got through the cuff ribbing, I put both cuffs on one long circular needle (to knit them at the same time) and began the leg chart, which is a really simple pattern of paired increases and decreases. This bit is moving right along and I expect that I'll be turning the heels of these socks by the end of the week. I think these socks are going to turn out beautifully and they'll be just right for my father-in-law. The pattern is enough to keep me interested in the knitting, but not too busy for him to wear. It's a good balance.

Well, that's all I've got for now. Until next time, Friends.