Two months without socks

I just realized that I haven't worked on a sock since December 26, 2010. Wow. But, there's a reason for that.

A while ago, I talked about making vests. Well, I finished knitting one about a month ago, but I got busy on Monday (Louis Riel Day, how I love you) and sewed it up.

I am quite pleased. It is a welcome addition to my work wardrobe. Details are here, for those who are inclined.

And in more non-sock news, I made it! Done the day after the initial deadline, but the shower has been postponed for two weeks. I'll have to wash this lovely wee blanket again to get the smell of my house out of it before the Sunday afternoon of wine and tiny sandwiches, but I'm quite pleased with the blanket (I'm definitely using Frankie's patterns again; they are so much fun). The wee nipper it's destined for is pretty cute as well. I wish the blanket and the baby a long and happy life together.

Ten-stitch blanket

Completing the blanket was delayed when I realized that I had a birthday gift to knit with the perfect yarn sitting in my stash. I whipped this off in a week:I don't normally knit with red, and I certainly don't knit with acrylic. But, this was fun, and I'm pretty sure it was appreciated. Perhaps I should break out of my comfort zone more often.

So.... socks. It's time to have a reasonably-sized portable project.

7,497 stitches

Just for fun, I did a quick and dirty calculation of how many stitches are called for in this shawl. The chart part, anyway.

Since I started about four yesterday and finished just now, that's a whole lot of knitting.

But I like it. I think it looks good.

It's meant to be a donation for a silent auction, but once again, I'm going to have a hard time parting with it.

Eight rows forward, four rows back

I have been on a knitting marathon this summer, and I'm rocking the complicated stuff.

Different gauge? I own it.

Tricky shaping? Let me do the math.

Finishing? You are my bitch.

However, the knitting god (must be a man) has to smack a knitter down, every once in a while.

This is what it should be:

This is what I did:

Yup, I ripped. And I had wondered why I only had 29 stitches when putting my row markers back on the purl row after the double decrease.

Perhaps listening to extremely compelling audio novels is not a good idea while knitting a lace pattern.

Done, and just in time

Please forgive the bad photos - windy day, and taken just outside the office, as I snuck out of work early to drop it off, on the way to the chiropractor.

Anyway, what a gorgeous scarf, if I do say so myself. I'm gonna be buying lots of silent auction tickets in this bucket, hoping to get it back.

Oh, and it recovered nicely from the coffee. Though I must say, the unworked yarn was rather tangled. Thank FSM for Eucalan.

I might very well be crazy

I have volunteered to donate something knitted to a silent action.

Yarn: Handmaiden Sea Silk in Amethyst

Pattern: Montego Bay Scarf

Needles: 5.5 mm (feel like tree trunks after months of sock-knitting)

Now, the question is, since I'm ripping out four rows for every three I complete, will I be done by November 1?

Let's hope so.

I am not known for my powers of observation

Yesterday morning, I notice an error made the previous evening (and I wasn't even drunk while knitting. For real): So, I drop the stitches, and work it all back up (any changes in stitch definition are fixed while blocking, I promise):
Later, I take my knitting outside, because it is a beautiful day, and I notice another mistake, near the border, six inches below.

Frog! Dropping stitches near the border is too fiddly. Even for me.
It's OK. If I rip, I just get to knit more.

Hopefully I'm not speaking too soon

You know how you think something is too good to be true, that something is going well, and then as soon as you remark on it, it goes bollocks up?

Yeah, like knitting.

I'm going to do it anyway.

Today was the Knit Out at the Forks, hosted by Yarn Over Manitoba. J picked me up at 10 AM (the earliest I've left the house on a Sunday for quite some time) and we sailed on down Main Street for a day in the sun, chatting with knitters, ogling other projects, and maybe even doing a little knitting ourselves.

It was marvelous. A couple friends, Stitcherwitch and Purlerbear and I have been planning, all year, to knit Juno Regina together.

Well, I couldn't wait any more. I cast on. I knit all day, taking lots of breaks, sitting up straight, doing some stretches and massaging my hands.

Stitcherwitch was concerned that the yarn was covering my face.

I felt wonderful, knitting all day. No pain, no tension. Even my damn back and leg felt pretty good, for a change. In fact, when I got home, I sat on the ce-ment pad with some wine and knitted some more! Continuing with lots of breaks and stretching (hey, a girl has to eat and do her laundry some time!).

I really hope this doesn't bite me in the ass. I'm loving the many charts and the tiny, tiny, but oh so very soft string. Knitting, I have missed you. Please don't leave me again.

Multi-tasking

The audio lectures I've been listening to for my course, while boring, have given me a great deal of knitting time.



My Noro wrap is complete, and I am truly, completely, deeply in love.



When I was outside taking a photo just now, a couple was walking by, and it was all I could do to not run over and show it off. (As an aside, I often wonder what my neighbours think, about the strange photo-taking and piles of yarn on the patio table. No one has ever really asked about it, though.)




All the details are on Ravelry, for those of you inclined. I won't bother repeating them here.

However, I've often gotten questions about blocking, so I thought I would just make a few points.

I use blocking wires, but they are not necessary. Some crochet cotton and stick pins would work just as well. This is the tutorial I read before I started.

I also don't think its important to used a blocking board. I just use my bed (with clean sheets, naturally). I give my project a nice soak, rinse it well, and then wrap it up in a towel. I stand on the towel to get all the excess water out.

Throw it on the bed, stretch to the size I want, pin, and walk away (closing the door so some furry fellows can't take a nap on it).

The one thing I would say is that it's important to use a ruler or measuring tape. I had eye-balled the width, and it turns out, I had a two-inch difference from one end to the other. Moving a few pins solved that problem.

Since it's no longer -40, I cracked open a window. The shawl was dry in about five hours. No risk, whatsoever, of going to sleep on a wet bed.

The big question I get, though, is why bother? Well, I think there's a difference between home-made and hand-made. Home-made can be slapped together, and hand-made is a lovingly crafted item that is beautiful and useful. I think its important to spend the time on these finishing touches. It's what separates the two.

Blocking allows me to get the size I want, and makes the pattern pop. Suddenly a really big scarf becomes a finely made, unique article of clothing. Seems worthwhile to me.

I have another audio lecture to listen to, and a new sock to work on. In a way, I'll be sad to have this course over. Completely justifies sitting and knitting, several hours at a time.

A little lesson on Noro

I've been hearing/reading about the new Noro sock yarn.

There's some gushing love, some ambivalence, and some downright negativity. That's OK. I think the world would be a pretty boring place if we all had the same opinion.

You can put me firmly in the "gushing love" camp. Love the stuff. I am a huge fan of bright, bold colours in unexpected combinations, and Noro does that really well.

This should not be a surprise. I am known for wearing five different shades of pink at once, and I am very well aware that doing so is usually a bad fashion decision for anyone over twelve.

However, for those of you out there who are not a fan of outrageous colour combinations, I can understand why Noro could piss you off.

I present Exhibit One: Want a closer look?

Yes, that is a break, and it totally messes up the colour continuity. I have broken the yarn and will therefore maintain the colour continuity in the shawl.

This is why I wind Noro, even when it comes in a ball. I want to know in advance, and plan things accordingly. By winding it, I avoided motoring along and finding the break right in the middle of a row.

I have also heard criticism that the sock yarn is scratchy. Well, scratchy is a subjective thing, and my skin must be rawhide. Literally and figuratively. I can wear the scratchiest thing, and I can ignore the itch. I can also ignore people who don't like me. Hee.

However, I have dry and cracked skin on my hands, because of my love of the outdoors, regardless of the weather. Permanently chapped, are my hands. To the point where my hands frequently bleed. Because Noro is so loosely spun, it catches on my dry skin (isn't that a pretty image!). If nothing else, I've gotten a little better at moisturizing while I've been working on this shawl.

A thousand things to do, but I don't care

My to-do list for today is as long as my arm, but I just spent two lovely hours listening to Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and working on my shawl.

I can't imagine a better way to start a Sunday. Now, I'm walking to the good grocery store. In the sun.

Algebra is your friend

I decided that the 56 stitches called for in the pattern weren't enough. Especially since I'm substituting yarn and needles.

So, this is what I did - I counted the number of stitches in the pattern repeat and the border repeat. Figured out a number that would evenly divide into both of them. The result? 86 stitches and eight pattern repeats instead of five. I'll get much closer to the finished width of 23" when I block, and I will be a happy woman.

I'm loving this yarn so much that I knitted lace at the pub last night. It's a simple pattern, and the light was fairly good. Strangely, I get fewer rude comments when I am not knitting something that is vaguely penis-shaped.

It's very simple, and rather intuitive, but I am loving the result. The beauty of Noro is the transition between colours, seeing where the slubs will appear in the fabric and the truly unique results.

Speaking of pub-knitting, Ed the plumber was wearing a jacket and tie. I did not recognize him with out his ball cap. Of course, I didn't tell him that he looked nice. That would never do.

Neil the Irishman was there, quite nervous because this guy was buying him drinks. I told him he was safe from unwanted advances. And when I said hello, he didn't even look me in the eye. I wonder what Rodney the railroad guy said about me. Rodney and I don't get along.

All in all, not a very exciting night. I walked home, and was in the house by eight. Rock and roll party queen, eh?

I'm not as smart as I think.

I was all gung ho on the new project. That should have been a sign.

Six rows in, and I've screwed up. Why? Because I missed the freaking border instructions, and started right in on the pattern.

Sometimes, wine and knitting truly do not mix.

I think we will just call this a swatch, break the yarn and start over. I think I wanted it bigger than 56 stitches, anyway.

A breath of spring

I can't wait to wear this. I need some colour to offset the grey of late winter, when everything is dirty and slushy. Just a few more weeks, I hope.

Pattern: Storm Water Scarf

Yarn: Handmaiden Sea Silk, 2 skeins (200 g).

Needle size: 4.00 mm (for the second half of the project, I used my beloved Harmony Options. Heaven).

Finished size: approximately 72" x 22"

Pattern mods: cast on 97 stitches (6 pattern repeats). Knitted until I was out of yarn.

A little karmic smack in the ass

I am reluctant about saying what I am about to type. Ya know, where things are sorta permanent (at least until I delete them, if I choose to).

(deep breath) OK, here goes.

I'm tired of knitting socks.

Wait for it... yup, the earth still revolves around the sun. Whew! I was worried for a minute.

I'm pretty sure I'm not tired of knitting socks forever. I'm just tired of socks after knitting nothing but socks for about two months straight.

All I'm saying is that perhaps I need a wee break.

So, on Tuesday, for knit night, I prepared. I grabbed the Storm Water Shawl and threw it into my bag (because, you know, tiny string with slightly bigger sticks will solve all my problems).

And, as I suspected, I became frustrated with the current sock and shoved it aside.

Storm Water was ready and waiting for me.

Gleefully, I got myself oriented for the next row. It was absolutely dreamy, the smooth sea-silk running trough my fingers, the wondrous parallelograms being created by the judicous placement of yarn-overs, k2tog's and ssk's.

In fact, it was so wonderful that I knit for an hour and a half at work the following day. And on the bus to my lecture. And during my lecture.

Where, fifteen minutes before we were dismissed, I noticed that the pattern repeat I thought I had completed at knit night was missing four crucial rows.

I frogged back to where I had started on Tuesday and managed to get the stitches back on the needles in time to run for the bus.

Yup, serves me right, for thinking I could switch it up without actually working at it.

Knitterly goals

And keeping with that whole new year introspection and resolution theme, I've been thinking quite a bit about what I want to knit, and why I want to knit it.



Since my actual knitting time has been severely curtailed, I'm thinking about all the knitting I would rather be doing than what I am actually doing right now. I realize there's a correlation here.



I'm a pretty good, fairly experienced knitter. Pretty fearless, too. If I really want something, I will try it. Several times, if need be.



That said, there's tons I haven't tried, and lots I haven't finished. Tons more I want to do.



So here is a list, in no particular order, of things I would like to tackle in the next twelve months. Some of these have been mentioned before, but I reiterate them, so that I don't forget.

• Putting in a zipper (I'm thinking of you, cabled hoodie).
• Lining a bag.
• Knitting with beads.
• Multiple (or at least two) colour stranded knitting.
• Socks for Brother J (when I facetiously asked him if he would wear hand-knit socks, he dropped all pretense of joking and told me his shoe size (as if I didn't know). His birthday is February 19, so I had better get going on that).
• Socks for Brother B (because my brothers were created equal, and when his wife was moaning about not finding nice mittens for the baby, he said "Duh, get Misstea to knit some"). Also, birthday is March 23. Nicely spaced, that.
• More socks for Dad. Just because.
• A scarf for my knitting teacher.
• Juno. Because I love, love, love skinny yarn on bigger sticks.
• Socks for knitting friend J, because she bloody well deserves them.

I am also desperately wishing to catch a case of finish-it-up-itis. There's lots on the needles around here, some of it long overdue.

Such as:

• 2 Christmas sweaters, which had better be done soon, before two little girls outgrow them.
• A beret, hopefully completed before winter is over.
• Pink cardigan, which is desperately needed in the office sweater rotation.
• Sea-silk stole.
• Koolhaas.
• The fingerless mitts I started a million years ago (well, last March), and actually have never blogged about.

There's a few things going to be frogged, as well. Just not loving them right now, so the yarn can be a skein until it tells me what it really wants to be. Mostly socks.

Then, there's socks to be made, for gifts, for fun, for the challenge. I put the list on Ravelry.

Realistically, I can see finishing a couple things, and then going on a sock-making binge.

Oh my!

There was a package waiting for me tonight. One I have been very much looking forward to receiving.

The delightful package was from the ever-yummy Black Bunny Fibers (remember Icarus?).

This is an estimated 1,000 yards of lace-weight, 90% alpaca, 10% Shetland (and it weighs in at 247 grams. I'm thinking there's more than 1,000 yards. Wow!). I am completely, helplessly in love with this yarn. It sings to my soul, with the blue and light pink peeking out in such a playful, teasing manner. It's called Naughty Knotty. How clever is that? I have two projects in mind: Muir or Juno Regina.

I have promised to knit Juno with a knitting buddy who wants to tackle a lace project, and we were considering starting in the new year. I am committed to doing this with her, because I believe in stretching boundaries (mine and everyone else's), and well, the tinier the sticks and the string, the happier I am, when it comes to knitting. Purlerbear, what do you think?

This sock yarn is 50% merino, 50% tencel. This is a new blend for me. I have a pair of socks to make for another knitting buddy, and I have cast on several times (there's some knitting that doesn't appear on this blog). Each time, I have been unhappy. These socks must be special. Now, J, you prefer your socks to match your trousers. You don't happen to have any "Real Deal Teal" trousers, do you? I'm thinking Pomatomus would be suitable for you. Oh yes, I want to knit those socks for you.

And, speaking of tiny sticks and tiny string, I happened upon this.

Now, I prefer to be a giver than a receiver. Frankly, I have expensive taste, so I should work hard and buy the things I want for myself (and I do). But, I just paid a honking big tuition bill, and there's been lots of shopping going on lately. I try to be mature, responsible and not whine about non-necessary things I don't have and can't really afford, but I waaant it. I want this yarn subscription in a jumping-up-and-down-please-please-please-mum kind of way. Doesn't a year of lace sound exciting? (Don't answer that, N.) Not that I would have time, because that honking big tuition bill? It means sacrificing much of my knitting time to studying.

But, I still wish that I had been a good girl, and that Santa would come down my chimney this year. Sadly, I am Misstea, and therefore I'm automatically on Santa's naughty list (but I've had a hellova lot of fun, and I'm not sorry. I'll be OK).

A knitting report, finally.

It's amazing how the hands can be trained to do something one way, and then when it's time to switch it up, the hands can't change.

I've spent most of the day knitting. I should have been doing a thousand other things, but I wanted to knit. I did a pattern repeat on my Storm Water Scarf (for me, it will be a shawl), and that's coming along nicely, despite my inability to count to eight (and I'm an accountant. I manage millions of dollars of assets every day. Be afraid, very, very afraid).

I started the Winding Cable Knee Socks. These will not be bar-and-bus socks, I promise you that. Just the cuff has been messing with my head, and I'm only 11 rows in. Don't get me started on the charts. When I get there, I will have to be sober, that's for sure. (A note about the pattern size - it's geared to be a woman's shoe size six or seven. That's about the size of my big toe. And the leg circumference - 11.5 inches, stretched. Mine is 14.5 inches, and I have skinny legs, for my size. Yikes. Needless to say, I'm not pleased about this, because I adore the socks. Can't add stitches without messing up the entire aesthetic, so I've gone up a needle size (2.75 mm from 2.5mm). I hope that will be enough. If not, someone smaller that me is getting a fan-fricking-tastic pair of pink socks. That said, I have two sisters-in-law with birthdays this month.

I've also done a bit on the bar-and-bus socks. I'm reading a new book, Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade, and perusing blogs (and this little website called Ravelry) and well, I need simple knitting while I read. Normally bar-and-bus socks don't even come out of my purse at home, unless I'm grafting a toe, picking up gusset stitches or casting on (you know, critical points).

My bar-and-bus socks are just a variation on the Harlot's basic sock recipe. Instead of plain stockingette , I'm k2, k1tbl, p1. It looks really sharp and isn't quite as boring as plain knitting. Perfect for reading, since I only look at it every few stitches.

However, when I started the Winding Cable socks, I could not, for the life of me, p2 k2 for the 16 repeats required. I would p1 and then knit - 'cuz that's what I've been doing for the past week. Argh! Hence the first sentence of this post.

Other knitting stuff: when I was home last weekend, I took the babies' measurements. Christmas is coming, after all. Last year, I made identical sweaters, and it was so damn cute I wanted to barf. But, finishing the second sweater was agony. As the Harlot says, second sweater syndrome is way worse than second sock syndrome. I've had a request for a particular type of sweater (requiring intarsia) for one. I'll probably be designing it myself, since I haven't seen anything approximating the requested idea anywhere. The other? I have no idea. I'm enamoured of this sweater, but everything I've read about the sizing says that it turns out huge. This is a very, very dainty little girl we're talking about. Huge would not be good. But I'm intrigued by the construction...

Gotta get back to that book. Who knew that a straight woman could write about a gay man so well?

Storm water is rising.

I have, just in time for summer to be over, started knitting with the sea-silk.


It took me forever to decide that I like this pattern. I hated knitting with two yarns, I don't like purling through the back of the loop, I just was cranky about it. But, I didn't find anything I liked better.


Then, I saw a woman knitting the same pattern at Winnipeg's knit out on August 19. Hers looked pretty good, so I went hunting for a new copy of the pattern, because I misplaced mine in my disaster of a house. Found a new one, and it has been amended so that only one strand is used, and there is no purling through the back of the loop.


Must have been a sign.


I swatched, blocked and cast on before the swatch was dry. I'm loving it.





I'm also loving that I got royally sunburned on the first official day of fall. Can't complain about that, especially today, when I wish I had a proper jacket. And a hat.

Knitting and jobs and boys, oh my!

Well.



I don't know where to begin.



The past six weeks or so have been pretty crazy. The technical difficulties were real - my power supply died and it took me a couple of weeks to get it replaced. After that, it's been hot (too hot to sit in this stuffy office) and I've been hunting for a job, and dating a boy, and generally trying to crawl out of the cesspool of negativity I've been wallowing in for the past eight months.



So, first the important news: the secret knitting project that kicked my butt, was almost finished on time, and did get finished in time to be sent with its owner to an important event.



The wrap is a 30th birthday present for one of my dearest friends, N. She's attending a wedding in her home province this week, and needed a dark wrap to go with the stunning dress that she bought. We could not find anything appropriate, so I decided to make her one. I had to choose carefully. N does not wear wool (in fact, she hates wool, and I do not hold that against her, but it's difficult). N also if very trendy, and would not wear anything that was folksy or hippie-like.



So, after Icarus was done, I was flipping through the summer IK, supposedly looking for a pattern suitable for my Sea Silk, and was struck by the pattern. I figured I could shorten and widen it, find some lovely black silk, and away I would go.



It took me a month to knit the first six inches. I have never tinked and frogged so much in my life. The sad part is, IT'S A FOUR ROW PATTERN (and two of the rows are straight purling). It's my own fault. I thought it would be easy, after Icarus, and it should have been. I just could not get it through my head that it was "k2tog, yo," and not the other way around.



Details are as follows:



Pattern: Montego Bay Scarf, Summer 2007 Interweave Knits.

Yarn: Ella Rae Silkience, nearly five balls.

Pattern modifications: 5 mm needles, 16 inches wide and approximately 66 inches long before blocking and fringe.



N is quite pleased. She will look stunning at the wedding.



Other news:



I begin a new job on August 8, and I'm so pleased about this that I can hardly stand it. I'll save the story for another day, but I am so glad that I achieved the goal I set at the end of June and found a really good job for the beginning of August. I am going to a company that really values its employees, has a wonderful reputation, and the work I will be doing is a return to real accounting. That's the best part. I can't wait to get back to doing what I do best. Which is bang out accurate and highly analyzed financial information in a timely manner. I really, really hope that this will be as good as it seems - I want to love my job again.



For the past six weeks or so, I've been dating a man exclusively. He's a skinny little nancy-boy, totally unlike anyone I've ever dated. It's breaking the rule I made a year ago, that I would NEVER again date anyone shorter than me. But, I like him. He makes me laugh, we can talk for hours, and for a change, he's my own age. I've even met his son (something I have never done before) because if I don't screw this up (and I've come close - another story for another day) I think he will be around for a while.

That's it, for now. I need to get out of this stinking hot office, sit outside with a cup of coffee and my Ipod, on which is the latest Harry Potter. Why didn't I investigate audio books earlier? Makes knitting sooo much easier when not flipping pages at the same time.

For those who asked:

I am so happy with Icarus that I can't even describe it. Such a joy to knit (yarn shortages notwithstanding), beautiful result. These photos are a pretty accurate reflection of the colour, finally!

Even my mother, who has no aesthetic appreciation for the fibre-arts whatsoever recognizes that this is pretty-darn-good-and-when-am-I-going-to-show-Gramma-cuz-she-knows-what-she's-talking-about.

Gramma's going to see it on Saturday.

My fingers are itching. What do I do next? Regrettably, this has been a light-knit week. I didn't knit a single stitch last Saturday, which was Knit in Public Day. (I had the hangover from hell, and the story to prove it).