kmkat and her kneedles

Package!

 Remember these socks? 

 

 
These are the two yarns I used: Knit Picks Felici in Rustic Cabin and an Online Supersocke 100.
Combined, they looked to me like handspun.

 

Fast-forward a few months, and I decided I wanted to get some more Felici in different colors for more double-stranded socks. I clicked over to the KnitPicks website... and discovered that Felici had been discontinued :-(

Much wailing and gnashing of teeth ensued.

Fast-forward another month or two, to the day I received an email from KP announcing a limited-time return of Felici. As you can imagine, I jumped on that with both feet. (See what I did there? Feet? Socks? Anyway...)

Yesterday this arrived in our mailbox.

Couldn't decide which colors to get... so I got one of each.

 

And since I was just a few bucks short of free shipping, I had to add another skein of sock yarn.

  

I foresee many pairs -- at least 8 -- of colorful double-stranded, quasi-handspun socks in my future!

 

WIP Wednesday Thursday.

After 8+ years I am stepping outside my plain vanilla sock pattern. This is Nevis, a sock pattern I saw on Madame Dafarge Knits. 

 

I cast on earlier this week with this yarn, Perfect Sock Yarn (self-striping) from Must Stash Yarns (currently unavailable).

 * * * * *

I am casting on these new socks in spite of having two (2!) pairs of socks already OTN. Both are the victim of user error.

 

The ones on the left are of a wool/cotton/nylon blend that turned out to be not nearly as stretchy as typical wool/nylon sock yarn. (Duh.) Even though it is 50% wool, the 25% - 35% cotton completely overcomes the wool's elasticity. The first sock was done past the heel when I decided that I really needed to make it bigger, 66 st instead of my usual 60, if I ever planned to actually put the socks onto my feet. First sock now done, second done toe to heel. This is my take-along project.

The ones on the right are another double-stranded pair, this time a tweaked version of my usual plain vanilla pattern. The gray is one strand each of two gray yarns, one tweedy (unknown yarn, label gone, probably Regia of some kind) and the other tonal (Regia Jeans Color). The stripes are two rows each of various Lang, Universal, and Trekking sock yarn solids. My innovation, besides the stripes, is the striped afterthought heel, of which I am inordinately proud. The user error in this pair was that I forgot to switch from the US#1.5 needle to the US#4 when I got past the ankle on the first sock; as a result the leg was too tight for comfort. Second sock is done, first sock's leg is frogged and reknit to the third stripe. These have been my TV knitting.

* * * * *

Other WIPs -- all sleeping comatose -- include a Color Affection shawl, a Fairfield sweater, two other pairs of socks that I got stalled on somewhere near the ankle, that hat that I need to frog and reknit, and a child's sweater that has been in time out since 2007. We shall not speak of these projects at this time.

FO Friday. Quickly now, before Friday is over.

Socks The First.

I took these two yarns...

 

...and made a pair of double-thick socks.

Yarn: Schachenmayr Regia Jeans Style Color, color 04042 (left) and Schachenmayr Regia Colormania, color 04070 (right).
Pattern: Wendy's Generic Toe-up Socks, knit on 48 st.
Needles: US#2.5 (foot and ankle), US#4 (leg).

The resulting tweedy fabric is lovely, imo. If it would not be prohibitively warm -- and take roughly forever to knit! -- I would make a sweater out of combining these two yarns. As it is, I shall have to be content with the socks.

 

Socks The Second. 

You have seen these before, when I had to rip out the second one
because I was knitting it on the wrong size -- way too small! -- needle.

Yarn: Trekking XXL 494, Brown Rust, Knit Picks Stroll Tweed in Marine Heather and Prussian Heather.
Pattern: Wendy's Generic Toe-up Socks, knit on 48 st.
Needles: US#2.5 (foot and ankle), US#4 (leg).

  

Compare and contrast.

 

Most of these socks were knit with two strands of the brown Trekking; stripes were one strand of Trekking with one strand of the KP dark blue tweed. There is one stripe in the foot of the first sock made with brown Trekking and KP turquoise tweed (not distinguishable in the photos), but it seemed too bright for what I wanted, so I did not repeat that combination (nor did I rip it out). As you can see, the stripe pattern on the foot is different from the stripe pattern on the leg. And it looked like I was going to run out of the brown Trekking so the last 4-5” of the leg of the second sock are one strand of brown and one strand of dark blue, no stripes. 

Normally I am anal about my socks being matchy-matchy, but these had exhausted my patience. Can you tell?

 

Sometimes I knit wicked good and sometimes not. Guess which one this this post is about.

Example of "sometimes not".

Oh, sure, that looks like one completed sock and one done nearly to the heel. But it is not.

It is one completed sock and another in the process of being frogged back to its roots. 

The sad part is that the second one was done a couple inches past the heel turn, to exactly the spot marked with a stitch marker on the first sock. (I knit socks toe up.)

This is what happens when Your Knitter grabs a US#1.5 needle to cast on instead of the US#2.5 that she always uses for double-stranded socks. That sucker was w-a-y too small.

Never fear, however. I frogged, rewound the ball of yarn, cast on with the proper needle, and am almost to the heel turn again. The sock is going much more quickly on the US#2.5 needle :-)

* * * * *

This was a Gradient in progress.

On Monday night I got ready for my 13+ hour stint at the polls: wind four skeins of Shibui Silk Cloud into cakes, divide those cakes into twelve equal smaller cakes, put each one into its own little plastic bag so they wouldn't tangle, do a provisional cast on, and knit the first inch or two of this gorgeous thing:

 

By the time I left the polls on Tuesday it was about 14" (35cm) long. But the next day I discovered that I had an error in the seed stitch about an inch back, so I began to tink. You can imagine how much fun it was to tink that mohair/silk yarn.

See the cut in the yarn at the top of the photo? That happened when I was about halfway to the first error and I had begun to cut -- very carefully, I thought -- the sticky fibers that were making it so hard to tink. 

Crap. Gonna have to tink back an extra few rows.

I was working on this in the car on the way to Rice Lake, about an hour away and where Smokey had an appointment at the VA clinic. We were giving another person a ride; when we dropped off Smokey at the clinic, I got out of the back seat and walked around to the driver's seat.

Unbeknownst to me, my yarn was hooked around my foot.

What I found when I picked up my knitting again.

I am not sure what I am going to do. Right now the project is sitting in time out to consider its sinful ways. Unwinding three strands of heavily twisted mohair might just be more than I want to tackle. Maybe this will be a short cowl that does not loop twice around the neck. Stay tuned.

* * * * *

Let's end this on a humorous note, m'kay?

Observed in Rice Lake.

 

Sundays are for posting.

I have become rather obsessed with mahjong on my computer and my iPad. 

I used to have it on my Windows box back in the day, but that was a downloaded program; this is online. Who knows what nasty stuff might be infesting my hard drive...

As I played I found I had an emotional reaction to the different pieces, usually based on how easy or difficult it was to recognize and match them. To help myself I have made up names for many of the tiles. Across the top row we have Nine Stick, Flat Top, another Nine Stick, Legs, Nine Plate, and Tee. The bottom row is Box, Three-Stroke, Box, Nine Stick, and Little Man. Weird, but it helps this non-Chinese reader. Those are all pretty straightforward. Then there is Little Bad Guy, Grace, Pointy Top, Round Bottom, and Strikethrough. And Chairlift and Birdhouse.

Enough of that. I am amusing only myself. 

Our taxes are in progress (hence the obsession with a computer game). I have a first draft of the federal return, still need to print it out and review it as though I were still at work. Then the WI and MN returns, yuk. For the past several years Smokey has had to be a MN resident (MN tax law) even though he lives in WI, and I am a WI resident. Even the fancy-schmancy professional grade tax software we had at work could not quite manage that situation, requiring me to override things in the return. Overriding was strongly discouraged because it usually meant an error. 

Because I am retired now and my time is more leisurely, I was able to take a different approach on the return: one day I did the W-2s and 1099s. The next day I did the cap gains. The next couple days were spent on the rental property. Then I took a break for a few days. Back at it to do the contributions. Next day the rest of the itemized deductions. Although this approach meant I always had the return nagging at me, it was also low stress.

On Saturday Elder Son called to ask for help on his return. He and I had gone through his situation back in early February and I had counseled him on which forms he needed, but he didn't go ahead and do the return. He did, however, manage to forget everything I had told him. His return's only quirk was an tuition credit; at work the software took care of the mechanics of that, but he and I had to wade through the form line-by-line on the phone, each of us on the IRS website looking at forms and instructions. He kept saying, Jeez, they're telling you every step without ever telling you the goal of what you are doing. Yup, the IRS is not in the business of making this process easy or self-explanatory. He wanted to know how people who are not good at math do their returns. I explained about H&R Block.

Speaking of H&R, I am using their tax software package this year and am not happy with it. I originally purchased and downloaded TurboTax, but found that it wouldn't run on my 2008-vintage computer. (Refund for it takes weeks :-( ) The Block software runs and was cheaper, but damn, there is a reason it cost so much less. I am not looking forward to reviewing the return; if what I saw going on on the screen comes through on the return, I am gonna be doing some overriding.

On the knitting front, I have another pair of double-stranded socks OTN, plus the second of another pair of fingerless gloves. 

 

I was able to tweak the color of the socks to be accurate; the fingerless gloves are actually camel-colored. The good news is that my new camera seems to be able to focus on yarn and knitwear, something my previous camera had a lot of trouble with.

There are so many things in my Ravelry (and mental) queue that I am feeling like I will never accomplish them all. And I probably won't, especially if I keep adding things. But that's part of the fun of knitting, right? Seeing all the possibilities? That is probably a part of any creative endeavor, I guess. Choices.

FO Friday Sunday.

   

Three Four more pairs of fingerless gloves for the library's sale booth next summer. All are fingering weight yarn, double stranded, 40 st, and the first three are 3x1 rib.

Pair The First: Knit Picks Felici in Mountain Stream and Knit Picks Stroll bare; US#6 or 7, don't remember.

Pair The Second: Lana Grossa Meilenweit Merino, color 2103, and Universal Pace sock yarn, 6402 pink; US#7.

Pair The Third: Lana Grossa Meilenweit Merino, color 2103 again, and Knit Picks Stroll, in African Violet; US#6.

The ones on US#6 needles are a little too snug on my smallish hands; the ones on US#7 are just right.

Pair The Fourth: notice the clever cabling at the top?

 

How about now?

Pattern: Owlings.
Yarn: Two strands of fingering weight Lang sock yarn, one pale tan and the other slightly darker; eyes are one strand of black Knit Picks Stroll fingering weight.
Needles: Knit Picks Options US#7.

Making those eyes was a lot harder than I expected. First, I tried French knots; no go. They were either too small and disappeared into the knitting or they were too big and out of proportion. Then I tried embroidering them; the owls were suddenly east Asian. My friend Colleen was here getting help with the toddler sweater she is knitting for her grandson; she told me to make little Xs. And she was right. 

* * * * *

 And... it's another pair of double-thick socks for me. These knit up so quickly I cannot stop making them. I think I may double my sock wardrobe with these.

Pattern: Wendy's Generic Toe-up Sock, worked on 48 st.

Yarn: Trekking Pro Natura in color 1508, a navy heather, double-stranded with a navy and gray twist yarn that I got when I asked for sock yarn leftovers for that sock yarn afghan I started. There was enough of that yarn that, even after using most of it for these socks, I can still make the requisite number of squares. That afghan is calling to me...

Needles: US#2.5 for the feet and first 1" of the leg, US#4 for the rest.

 

 

 

 

Things that are making me happy today.*

I discovered that a pair of socks that had never really gone with anything actually coordinates with a recently-acquired shirt.

Fashion-forward is I!

 

The sun is shining!

Funny white shadow is reflection of cell phone in glass. 

 
Not only shiny sun in sky, but actual ground visible along north-facing driveway.
And while taking these photos, I saw a hornet flying around... outside!

The poles that I had Smokey put in last fall actually kept us from driving on the snow-covered garden. Yay!

 

Another pair of double-thick socks.

Raveled here.

That was how much I got done the first day of knitting! Of course, that was the day we drove to Rice Lake (one hour), Smokey had blood drawn (20 minutes), we had lunch and I finished first (5 minutes), Smokey went shopping in a couple stores while I waited in the car (~1 hour), we drove home (1 hour), and we watched TV in the evening (2.5 hours; we watched an extra episode of Criminal Minds on Netflix because I thought I could finish the sock -- almost; went to bed with ~1/2" of ribbing left to do.

I am enjoying double-thick socks immensely -- picking out the stash yarns to combine, knitting them zipzipzip, wearing them. So fast, so warm. I am pretty sure that if I knit enough pairs, and I get enough other people knitting them, these socks can solve world hunger, bring about world peace, and probably explain the theory of everything. (The latter has baffled Stephen Hawking for 45 years. These socks are awesome.)

There is one thing making me kinda sad, though.

Last time I grabbed my camera to take some knitting photos, it wouldn't turn on. Needs new batteries, I thought. Today I put in fresh batteries, and it still won't turn on. Right now it is sitting on the tray table in front of Smokey's chair, which is the place where he works on small projects while watching TV. He says the chances are slim that he can fix it, so I may be in the market for a new camera... which makes me kinda happy.

* Smoke actually commented that I was extra cheerful today. I explained about this post. Now you know it is all true.

Socks, socks, and another pair of socks!

Yarn: Trekking XXL in a red/black/brown variegated that I have had for so long it is pre-Ravelry and apparently discontinued, held together with one strand of Knit Picks Essential (now called Stroll) in a deep red color.
Needles: Addi Turbo US#2.5 (foot) and US#4 (leg).
Pattern: Wendy's Generic Toe-Up Sock Pattern.
Size: 48 st. 

I needed more red socks and I needed more thick socks -- these are the result. I started them shortly before Christmas, but the first sock was too tight. I knit the second sock, which fit, then bit the bullet and frogged and reknit the first one. Now they are perfect.

 

 
These are my current pride and joy. Two strands of sock yarn held together
made them look like handspun. And they were stashbusters!

Yarn: Online Supersocke 100 Living Color 1051 and Knit Picks Felici Rustic Cabin.
Needles: Addi Turbo US#2.5 (foot) and US#4 (leg).
Pattern: Wendy's Generic Toe-Up Sock Pattern.
Size: 48 st.

 

 I made these at least five years ago in December 2007 for Younger Son, but he never took them.
Now they are minemineMINE!

Yarn: Knit Picks Comfy or Shine Worsted in some long-discontinued color, plus ivory stripes. It has been so long, and it was before Ravelry, and I don't remember. If I had to guess I'd say it was Comfy, since the yarn has zero shine. Yay for blogging -- I found this old post about the socks.
Needles: US#5, maybe? Or maybe US#6?
Pattern: Some generic top-down sock pattern.
Size: To fit Younger Son, which was of course a bit too big for me. I threw them in the washer and dryer last week, and now they fit perfectly.

Warm feet! Go, me!

Navel and foot gazing.

1. Note :: -worthy.
2. 2015 :: year of the cat.
3. Earlobe :: pierced.
4. Sunburn :: ouch.
5. Hashtag :: #.
6. Special :: snowflake.
7. Spacious :: loft.
8. Happening :: now.
9. Blank :: page.
10. Humid :: summer.

* * * * *

I added four -- FOUR! -- pairs of socks to my sock bin in one weekend. Lest you become terminally jealous of my lightning-fast, mad knitting skillz, let me clue you in: I finished knitting one pair and f-i-n-a-l-l-y mended three other pairs which have been sitting unmended for several years.

These are the socks I just finished knitting.

Yarn: Country Classic Yarn for Sox (Aran, 80% wool/ 20% nylon)
Needles: Addi Turbos US#3 (feet and ankles), US#4 and #5 legs.
Pattern: Pattern? I don' need no stinkin' pattern! I knew I wanted to knit these on 44 st; I cast on 22 st and divided them onto the two ends of my circ, alternating 1 st on left tip, 1 st on right. Work in the round, increasing 2 st at each side every other round until there are 44 st. Short row heel, 1x1 ribbing at the end. Easy-peasy.

These are good and thick and will keep my tootsies warm this winter.

The other three pairs have languished in various to-do piles for years, the victims of wear, moths, and procrastination. This new year has prompted a small bout of finish-itis, that wonderful condition that comes far too seldom.

Remember these?

Now they look like this.

The colors are a bit misleading. The original Colinette yarn was mainly olive green, but it faded terribly over time in the wash. The mending yarn is olive green and matches the reinforcing thread in the heels -- you can see a tiny bit of it on my left foot. Gee, do you think maybe I should have reinforced the toes instead of the heels?

The first darn looked pretty messy, the second one looked better. When I finished I told Smokey that I was glad that I didn't have to darn socks because it was not any fun.

Then I was on a roll.

ly

Who says the darn has to match the socks? (That is Swedish ivy blooming in the photo.)

This darn was better, maybe because I could see the bright colored yarn better. Or maybe because we were watching Columbo, who knows? This was the second or third pair of socks I ever made, so I am very glad to have them back. Also, I needed another pair of bright blue socks.

 

This is the first pair of socks I ever made. I loved them. Whenever I had a challenging day ahead,
I would wear my red jacket, black pants, and these; I thought of them as my power socks.

The dark blue darn is pretty darned tidy (see what I did there?) if I do say so myself. But check out the bright red darn on the toes. All the wool had worn away from the yarn, but the 25% nylon remained. Using some bright red Lang Jawolle sock yarn, I chain-stitched up the ladders of nylon on each side of the the toes on both feet. Back when I first started knitting socks, I used US#1 needles, which accounts for the severe wear on the toes. Now I always knit the feet on US#0s so they wear better.

...and that, children, is how you get four *new* pairs of socks in one weekend.

 

Mutterings. And new socks.

You lucky people, you get to read twice as many of my mutterings this week. Please contain your enthusiasm.

1. Stuck :: in the elevator.
2. Elevator :: stuck (see above).
3. Vaccine :: measles, mumps, rubella.
4. Pepsi :: yuk. Give me Coke [Zero] or give me death.
5. Rotund :: round.
6. Wonder :: Woman.
7. Solo :: Han.
8. Voodoo :: economics.
9. Sticky :: peanut butter.
10. Summarize :: executive summary.

 

1. Disappointment :: sadness.
2. Searching :: for my stitch markers.
3. Counters :: row.
4. Snippet :: of conversation.
5. Carol :: Christmas.
6. Tiresome :: bore.
7. Booger :: eww.
8. Freak show :: circus.
9. Summarize :: executive summary.
10. Heartache :: not getting gauge.

* * * * *

Now that I am done with all promised knitting, I cast on a pair of super-warm socks for myself. Aran weight sock yarn on US#3 needles.

Crappy photo in artificial light. I didn't bother with jogless stripes on the bottom of the foot.

 

A more accurate depiction of the colors.
The new socks will use rest of the yarn from these.

 

The previous socks weighed 155g. I had 180g of yarn left: 92g of the brown, 47g of the teal, and 41g of the white. Since I had a limited amount of yarn I had to do some fancy schmancy math to figure out the stripe pattern. I knew I wanted to do contrasting white toes and heels and possibly cuffs, which meant the body of the socks had to be all brown and teal. How to figure out a stripe pattern so I wouldn't run out of one color?

My calcs. Literally, back of the envelope.

 

The blue and teal together are 88 g: 53% brown and 47% teal. If I did a 100-row pattern, I could do 53 brown rows and 47 teal rows and it would come out exactly right. But there is no way a 100-row pattern was feasible. A 10-row stripe pattern would need 5.3 rows of brown and 4.7 rows of teal. Still a no-go. I settled on a 20-row pattern:

• 8 rows of brown
• 4 rows of teal
• 2 rows of brown
• 5 rows of teal

Rows that narrow mean I can carry the yarn, which means (yay!) no ends to weave in. I think it will be okay. Lying in bed this morning I realized I could have tried to use some section of the Fibonacci sequence, which might have been more eye-appealing, but that would have meant ripping back a couple inches of the foot. Not worth it.

Warm feet, here I come!

Smokey likes to solve a problem by buying a car. I prefer to knit a solution.

Although today's post is about something I had to buy to accommodate my knitted solution.

I think I have mentioned that I live in Merrell clogs. Several different pairs and colors over the years.

So comfortable, plus there is a slight heel counter at the back so that my arch supports stay in place. The downside is that, although these are perfect for three seasons, the mesh is not very warm in the the winter.

I have made thick socks either from worsted weight sock yarn or by double-stranding sock yarn. These socks are toasty warm (well, the ones from Berrocco Vintage are not nearly as warm as the ones from all wool, but work with me here, m'kay?) but rather too thick to fit comfortably into my clogs (or shoes, for that matter).

Inspiration struck -- I need a pair of winter clogs! Leather for warmth, rather than mesh, and a half size bigger to allow clearance for the socks. Zappo's to the rescue!

Behold, the clogs I found:

As I was about to click on "Submit order" I noticed a similar pair in the sidebar that said Suregrip. Huh. Given my uneasy relationship with gravity, I thought to check them out.

Behold the clogs I actually bought:

I be stylin' and warm and sure on my feet this winter!

Blowout!

But first, a public service announcement:

Have you been voting for The Knitter's Hunk/Hunkess? Check it out!

* * * * *

If it had been just one hole, I would have considered fixing them.

 

This is what happens to socks with the bad judgement to develop a hole in each foot.

What did you knit on your road trip, Kat™?

I started the Ann Arbor/New York trip with:

• a second sock OTN:
• the linen stitch scarf OTN:
• a cake of yarn for a second cowl like this one.

In a fit of unbridled optimism I also brought along the Fairfield sweater, which had been in time out for a week or two due to its sleeves nasty state of not having enough stitches at the beginning of the armhole shaping. And I also brought along yarn for another pair of socks -- just in case of being stranded on a desert island.

I arrived home with a finished pair of socks (just in time; the trip lasted longer than I had packed for and I wore these socks IMMEDIATELY), a finished linen stitch scarf, a finished cowl, and a good start on a third cowl, using the yarn I had brought along for socks.

The finished socks:

 

Oh, dear. Let's play a rousing game of "Find The Dropped Stitch", shall we?

Must fix.

Yarn: Lang Jawolle Color Superwash, color 8288, about 1.5 skeins, acquired in a destash from Lorette. Contrasting heels and toes are some unknown superwash contributed when I begged for sock yarn for my afghan.
Pattern: Plain vanilla, using, as always, Wendy's Generic Toe-Up Sock Pattern; 60 st.
Needles: Knitters Pride Karbonz circs. Feet, US#0; legs, US#1.5. 

 

The linen stitch scarf, unblocked:

Remember how I mentioned that two-stitch patterns give me fits? Here is the linen stitch scarf with visible errors highlighted. You can be sure there are other oddities hidden in the folds. I am relying on the trotting galloping horse theory of errors.

 

Yarns: Lang Jawolle Superwash Solids, oxford gray (83.0003) and light gray (83.0085); Marks & Kattens Fame Trend, color 662.
Pattern: Linen Stitch Scarf by Matthew Hesson-McGinnes. There are any number of patterns for this scarf. I picked this one because 1, it didn't have fringe, and B, it was free.
Needle: Knit Picks Options Interchangeable Rainbow Wood, US#9. I think these needles had a different name when I bought them.
Notes: The pattern calls for a US#8 needle, but I preferred the fabric I got when using the US#9. Knitter's choice. Also, bigger needle = less knitting = sooner done.

 

Cowl The Second:

Yarn: Lisa Souza Sock! Merino; colorway Appaloosa. Searching the blog reveals that I never told you about this yarn. This was a special colorway being sold as an online fundraiser for an equine rescue organization. As a member of board of my local humane society AND a knitter, how could I NOT buy a skein?
Pattern: Willow Cowl.
Needle: Signature US#5.
Notes: After wearing Cowl The First so much this past winter I decided I wanted the next one to fit a bit more snugly. I did some extra decreases in the stockinette sections on this one, but I overdid it. Cowl The Second may be a little too snug for indoor wear. It will be perfect to wear instead of a scarf when the temp is <0˚F.

 

Cowl The Third:

Yarn:  Schachenmayr Nomotta Regia Linien Color.
Pattern: Willow Cowl.
Needle: Signature US#5.
Notes: I followed the pattern on this one.

Question: Why did I change my mind and make a cowl from this yarn, which had been destined to be a pair of socks? 
Answer: I was working on Cowl The Second one day on the trip when we were chatting with Smokey's cousin and her husband. She asked about my knitting. As we all know, anyone who expresses any interest in an objet d'knit is fair game. This cowl is for her. 

I did not touch the Fairfield sweater on the entire trip. It is still in time out, although I have figured out my next step.

Tomorrow we see what I started (and finished!) since we got home.

What I knit in 2013.

Hover over the photos to see the comments.

Twelve squares.

 

Five baby bibs.

  

 

Four pairs of socks.*

 

 

 

Four pairs fingerless gloves of varying lengths.

 

 

 

Four hats.

 

 

Four dishcloths.

 

 

I actually knit far more than four. I was on a dishcloth rampage for a few weeks last summer to use up odds and ends of discloth cotton, and it was the perfect mindless project while I was still taking painkillers after the hip replacement. These are the only ones that got photographed, though. The others are in the kitchen rotation and are, of course, no longer camera-worthy.

 

Two scarves.

  

 

Two cowls.

 

 

 

One pair felted clogs.

 

 

One double-knit felted hotpad.

 

 

 

One pair of mittens fit for Sissy Hankshaw, if Sissy Hankshaw were eight years old.

 

One Red Quadrant.

 

One swea--, er, finished one sweater.  

...and started but didn't finish another one.

 

I also dyed some yarn...

and frogged some long cabled stockings... 

...plus any number of intermediate cowls...

...and trials...

...and errors...

...and that is why knitting is such a great hobby: if we make a mistake, we can rip it out and do it again right/better.

 

* Everything with a blue border is something I knit for myself. 

Black FO Friday.

I finished another pair of socks. Or, as I like to think of it, another skein of sock yarn bit the dust.

That weird lumpiness near the top of the socks? I pulled the socks over my leggings
to avoid drafts (temp is roughly -150˚F here). It is not caused by tumors on my legs.

Yarn: Austermann Step with Jojoba; toes and heels reinforced with Lang reinforcing thread (light blue on the left toe, light gray on the other toe and both heels; I couldn't find the blue when it was time to start the second sock).
Needles: Karbonz US#0 (feet) and Addi Turbo US#1 (legs). These came out a little tight. I need to remember to use a US#1.5 for the legs.
Pattern: Wendy's Generic Toe-Up Socks.

This yarn has been marinating in the stash since ::counts on fingers and toes:: April 2007. I am glad to have used it finally. Although the socks are not exciting, they will be a wardrobe staple.

It is completely random that they came out so perfectly matchy-matchy. Usually I divide the full skein into two equal balls and [with great anal-ness] start each one at the same spot in the color repeat, but I didn't bother this time. Although the stripes are clear in the finished socks, they are much more subtle in the yarn itself. I decided not to bother trying to figure out where to start sock #2. Imagine my surprise when I held the second sock up to the first to see if it was time to start the heel -- perfect match on the stripes!

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And now for your amusement: a baby duckling waterslide!

What's on the needles.

I finished a pair of socks a week or two ago.

Yarn: Trekking XXL in some unknown colorway which never made it into my stash page on Ravelry. label is long gone. the creatively named "100". The red is Lang Jawolle, color 60, bright red. Toes and heels reinforced with the matching Lang reinforcement thread.
Pattern: Wendy's Toe-Up Generic sock pattern.
Needles: US#0 for foot and ankle, US#1.5 for leg.

Looking around for some portable and mindless knitting for Saturday's lectures, I decided another pair of socks, this time knit with yarn that has been marinating in the stash since the first time I went to Yarnover -- April, 2007.

Want to know how much I can knit between 9:15 and 4:15 with a 20-minute break for lunch? This much.

The yarn is Austermann Step with Jojoba, and the needle is a US#0 from Webs, a Knitter's Pride Karbonz circ. It is a delightful needle with a very sharp point. Toe is reinforced with pale blue Lang reinforcing yarn, heel with light gray. I actually started them at knitting group on Friday night but forgot the reinforcement thread; frogged and restarted on Saturday morning.

I probably won't work on them much in the next week or so because I have another Sooper Sekrit Project. I don't think the recipient reads the blog, but I am going to keep it sooper sekrit just in case.

A photo of Sooper Sekrit proje--, er, the yarn for SSp (it is a deeper red, but we all know how difficult it is to get an color-accurate photo of anything red):

There are a couple other minor projects OTN but I'll save them for later. Also, I made a pair of mittens for Adrienne's mitten tree but totally forgot to photograph them. The yarn was Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in a soft green called Asparagus (not currently available); the mittens were totally plain and sized for an 8-yo. Use your imagination.

FO Friday.

New pair of socks.

 

 

Yarn: Paton's Kroy sock yarn. Yarn felt kinda scratchy in the skein, but lovely soft as I was knitting it. Felt like merino but it isn't. Skeins have only 166 yds so I bought 3 just in case, didn't even use all of 2. More yarn for the blankie.
Needles: Addi Turbo US#0 and #1

I carefully wound the yarn in to cakes, starting at the same place in each skein. As you can see, the socks are still not quite identical. Whatever. 

Sunday, mutterings, and stuff.

1. Karma :: bad.
2. Detail :: -oriented.
3. Conversation :: starter.
4. Optimistic :: live longer.
5. Social :: justice.
6. Approval :: ratings.
7. Tab :: open, many.
8. PM :: AM
9. Share :: cookies.
10. Cheat :: income taxes.

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Smokey maintains that if whoever wrote the bass in this song never did another thing in his life, that life would still be counted a success.

I find nothing to disagree with in that statement.

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Snicket socks have been knit nearly to the heel, including repeated tinking and re-knitting, frogged back to the ribbing, and re-knit to the heel. Needless to say, it took me awhile to grok the pattern. As of this writing (Friday evening) I am ready to do the heel. The pattern directions for the heel are hard for me to follow, and I knew I wanted it to look like this (photos cheerfully borrowed from Ravelry):

wherein the pattern continues into the heel. So I'm gonna wing it. There is a good chance that that is what the pattern actually says, but I am not going to try to decipher it.

Foot should go faster than leg because the pattern is only on the top half. Pattern has sole done in stockinette. I am thinking of using reverse stockinette to match the rest of the sock. Anybody have experience whether stockinette or reverse stockinette wears better?

Toe will look like this:

ETA: I have knit and reknit the short-row heel more times than I can count. I hope to get it right today (Sunday). It's not like I have never knit one before...

ETAx2: I just realized that the upper photo is NOT a short-row heel. Did I know that? Huh. Shall I continue with the SRH, or should I frog (again!) and do a gusset? Huh.

Stay tuned.

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It was recently pointed out to me that I have one helluva Heidelburg dueling scar on my ass from the hip replacement. I'll spare you a photo of that.

Ten on Tuesday, the long weekend edition.

 Ten Things I Did Over The Weekend.

1. Knit. Duh. 
    
2. Finished Life After Life by Kate Atkinson and started The Memory of Breathing by Perry Klass.
    
3. (Knit.) Read and re-read and studied and analyzed the Snicket Socks pattern until I finally figured out how the leg pattern works. It's not all that hard, but I had put the pattern on my iPad instead of printing it out and that meant I could not compare the written instructions side by side with the chart -- had to keep flipping back and forth. When I bit the bullet and attempted to print out the chart, my husband's computer (the only one with a functioning printer at the moment) locked up. So I went back to flipping back and forth between screens and eventually it all clicked.
    
4. Attended our lake association annual meeting, gave my report on doings in county government. (I am the county board rep on our lake association board.)
    
5. Watched the Swedish version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire on Netflix. (Today I will watch The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest.) I also ordered the American version from the library; compare and contrast, etc. Tragically, the library consortium has only the first of the three movies; my Netflix has only the Swedish versions. Big Red Box, I may be visiting you for the first time...
    
6. Knit. Started a simple ribbed hat with the skein of Knit Picks Swish Bulky that was left over from my hat and scarf. This turned out to be the perfect thing to knit while watching the above movies because I didn't need to keep my eyes on my knitting, thereby freeing them to read the subtitles.
    
7. Made a dandy dinner that took less than 10 minutes of actual prep time. Stir-fried chicken with jalfrezi sauce over brown rice with steamed asparagus. One more thing out of the pantry, one more thing out of the freezer.
    
8. Began cleaning my office. My first goal is to clear a path wide enough to use a walker easily, in preparation for my recovery from the hip replacement. Once that is accomplished -- probably today -- I will begin dealing with the clutter around the edges. 
    
9. Played many rounds of Word Seek with Smokey. He worked this weekend (nights as always) so he tended to fall asleep after two or three games.
    
10. Did NOT knit on the deck. Not quite warm enough. Yet.

 

 

Muttering on Monday.

1. Rental :: apartment.
2. Collapse :: bridge.
3. Seismic :: occurence.
4. Barricade :: in the streets.
5. Dip :: skinny.
6. Teamed :: teaching?
7. Jeans :: blue.
8. Why not? :: because I said so.
9. Honing :: sharp.
10. Dough :: knead.

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The Snickety socks continue apace. I carefully read the pattern before proceeding into the next section. So far, so good...