AmphibiaKnits

Knitting ADD

I think I suffer from knitting ADD.  I flit from project to project.  When I finish something, I decide to start a new project instead of finishing up something from the Lonely Hearts Club.  Oh well.  

It's Victoria Day weekend, but it's not exactly warm and welcoming out there.  It's cold. Good weekend to stay in and knit.  

I have lots of arrivals this week -- needles, yarn, a book and a FO and an almost HO. 

But first, let me get the non-knitting content out of the way.  The thing I love about my iPhone is that I always have a camera with me.  

As I was leaving the gym the other day, I was walking toward what appeared to be a two-tone car.  I thought it was mostly copper coloured with some sort of wacky blue and purple on the front quarter panel. 

But no -- it's paint which changes colour depending on the angle and the light. It's a beautiful blue and pinky-purple.  In 1983 I had eyeshadow like this -- it was called Blue Roses.  Anyway, I think I'm in love.

Princess (the car geek) tells me it's called chameleon paint. Yep, I am definitely in lurve.  

Okay, enough with the non-knitting and onto the fibre.

I think I mentioned that I had ordered the Karbonz from WEBS and then ordered some more from the Loopy Ewe.  The Loopy Ewe package arrived last week. (Oh, how I love the feeling of parcels in the mail...).

Sherri has done something new with the Loopy Groupy stuff, so I got a bookmark kit. I had ordered the Karbonz 6" DPNs in 2.0, 2.25 and 2.50 mm sizes.

You can see the tips fairly well.  I retract what I said, they're not quite as pointy as the SNA 2.0 mm needles.  They're probablly comparable to somethinig like Hiya Hiyas or Chiaogoos.  I wouldn't use them for anything requiring k3tog or p3tog.  They're okay for ssk and k2tog and they are totally acceptable for stockinette and ribbing. 

I like them quite a bit, but they will never eclipse the Signatures.

Speaking of which, Signature is unveiling something new at the end of the month.  My guess?  Interchangeables.  That's what I suspect.  Of course, I can't enter the contest because I don't live in the USA. So feel free to use my guess.  Interchangeables, interchangeables, interchangeables.

I also ordered 4 skeins of Biscotte & Cie self-striping yarn. It's from Quebec.  Believe it or not, I didn't find anything else yarn-wise that I wanted from TLE.  I might actually be running a fever.

Two of the skeins are watermelon self-striping.  There's a lighter and a darker.  I kept going back to Ravelry to check out people's projects, and I liked them both so much I decided to get both of them (melon d'eau A and melon d'eau B).  There's a bright sunny vibrant summery one (a moi le coco) and a blue/neutrals one called Loopy's Mountain Hike.  I quite like them and am very excited to knit them up.

So those make me pretty happy.  

I also ordered Rachel Coopey's Coop Knits Socks.  The book is only available from her website, but if you order the print version, you get a coupon code to download it from Ravelry.  

I like the socks and I like the fact that she uses real-world models. Many of the socks have cabley / twisty stitches, so I'm going to start with the basic lace ones (Calamint will be first on the needles).  I like the fact that she often has the leg and foot with different patterns and then alternates them on the other sock.  

You can see what I mean about the fraternal feet. The green pair (whose name escapes me) is an example of that.

Anyway, the book is lovely and the charts are nice.  There's a picture gallery index which is always handy.  My only complaint is that the paper is a little on the thin side.  But since I'll most likely be knitting from PDF or will be transcribing the charts onto graph paper in my knitting book, it's not a big deal.

I have had Mixalot in my Rav cart forever.  I finally purchased it, along with When Vampires Knit Socks.  I've had my eye on that for a long time, but the 20 pound purchase price put me off.  I think it works out to about $32 or $33 for 12 patterns.  I realize that's a pretty good deal, but I was mentally resistant to a two-digit price starting with a 2, particularly when there's currency conversion involved.  We'll see how I get along.  More socks for retirement. 

It occurs to me that I have the Knit Girls to thank for that particular purchase. They are the queens of enabling.

Since I last blogged, I have been fairly prolific, but in a one step forward - two steps back kind of way.  The reason my Rav name is Amphibiaknitter is because I do so much frogging. (And amphibian knitter kind of blended into amphibiaknitter). 

I did almost a complete Semaphore sock using some Blissful Sock in Guinevere from Impulse of Delight.  I was almost at the toe decreases when I looked down and realized I had not been paying attention and had repeated rows 1-10 several times rather than doing 1-10 and 11-20.  So I frogged it.  Then I decided to do a garter stitch rib sock with it for my FIL.  I got about half way down the leg and discovered that I did an extra row of plain knit when I should have been doing a patterned row, and it stuck out like a sore thumb.  So I have wound the yarn back into a ball and am leaving it for now.

I like the Skyp socks pattern by Adrienne Ku, so I decided to cast on a pair.  I thought I'd use some Wollmeise to see how I like knitting with the Twin.  I had a skein of Fratello already wound up, so I decided to use that.

The yarn base itself gets two thumbs up.  But the colour?  I realize this is heresy, but I am not a fan.  I don't care for the yarns which do wacky pooling striping flashing stuff.  It's one thing if they're variegated in the way that a lot of BMFA is variegated, but when yarn has kind of random globs of colour, it drives me nuts.  Don't get me wrong -- I have nothing against either shade of brown in the Fratello.  But please, pick one or the other.  Even though this is probably classified as a tonal or a semi-tonal, all I can see is uneven stripes which overwhelm what is an otherwise very simple stitch pattern.

This is 2.25 mm needles and a 72-stitch sock.  1x1 rib (which was a mistake -- should have done 2x2).

For comparison purposes, I cast on the same sock in my Woolen Rabbit Harmony in New England Red because I thought that would be a nice yarn to show off the pattern.  I am doing 64 stitches on 2.50 mm needles for that one.  And I was smart enough to do a 2x2 cuff on it.  But not smart enough to take a photo.  Duh.  Next time.

So I am going to cruise along on the brown Skyp sock after I finish blogging, but that dark striping is really driving me crazy.  I've just switched to the Karbonz DPNs.  We'll see if that makes me love the sock a little more.

I do occasionally feel guilty enough about my Lonely Hearts to make the second sock.  I had started my Crocus Vernus socks more than a year ago, and in fact got the first sock finished in about a week.  (That was March 2012).  I didn't even start the second sock until September 2012. Then it languished forever.  I dug it out recently and decided I had to finish it.

I love the finished product. They're knitted in Plucky Knitter Primo Fingering in Carpet Ride.  I love the Plucky Knitter sock yarns.  This was my one and only experience with the Primo Fingering.  I have a couple more skeins of it, and I'll for sure be using it again. 

Finished the second sock right before blogging today.  This is one of those patterns which I actually prefer on the leg to the unblocked version.  I often find that stitch patterns end up looking kind of meh on the actual leg, but this one is the reverse.  It's even nicer on the leg.  I will have to get a photo of them on my actual feet (or possibly on Princess's feet). For now, Lola and the Knit Picks sock blocker will have to do.

The sock is 68 stitches and I used 2.25 mm needles. 

I have The Knitter's Curiosity Cabinet 2 electronically and am waiting for the paper version.

There are a couple of the hats in there which I think I'd like to make. The Polyommatus corydon is particularly fetching.

I might do the Smerinthus ocellatus sock fairly soon, but I'm not going to use something dull and moth-coloured.  I quite like the toe detail.  Hunter gives good toe.  Or I might do Metopsilus porcellus in something bright and vivid.  Delias eucharis is lovely, but that's a lot of twisted cabley stitches.  I'll have to learn to cable without a cable needle for that.  I just find twisted stitches and cables kind of slow going.

Speaking of slow going, Christine referred me to Tour de Sock on Ravelry.  I've joined up.  What was I thinking? I don't have time to knit a pair of socks in 10 days.  Witness the long delayed Crocus vernis.... And to make it worse, there's some sort of Stealth Stitch group [Sock Sniper] as well which is a companion group, so I signed up for it as well (but the non-combatant category, which I hope means I don't have to be attempting to knit socks at the speed of sound).

The cool thing about Tour de Sock is that the net proceeds all go to Doctors without Borders. And I think the patterns are donated, but I'm not 100% certain.  There's a supply list, and I think a couple of the socks are colourwork (yeah, I see myself dropping out right now) and two have beads.  One requires 500 size 8/0 beads, and the other requires 50 size 6/0 beads.  One of the two is supposed to coordinate with the yarn.  I can't remember which one.

[ETA, as I've gone back to get the Rav links for my blog, I re-read the supply list for the Tour de Sock.  It's 50 size 8/0 beads, not size 6/0 beads.  Great.  I'm a moron.]

Living where I do, there's a dearth of most crafty-related things.  So I went to Michael's where I know they sell beads.  There's a section where they sell quite nice beads in little tubes.  Now what size do you think they are?  Size 6/0 and size 11/0.  Helpful.  Size 11/0 is apparently too small.  

And there are zero size 8/o beads which are marked as such.  

I was in a quandary, so I took a look at the bead sizes. The 6/0 is 4 mm, and the 11/0 were 2.25 mm (or something like that).  So I figured that size 8/0 might be 3 mm, so I found some 3 mm beads.  That was actually no mean feat.  There weren't 500 of anything except for the hematite beads.  So I grabbed 5 strands of those (which are pre-strung on fishing line, which is kind of cool).  I'll have to go back and see whether the 500 beads are for the matchy matchy one or for the other.  I may use the new skein of Dove from Tanis Fiber Arts with those beads.   Of course I dropped a couple when transferring them into a container.  

I may have completely missed the sizing, and 8/0 beads may be some other size all together.  Live and learn I guess.

But while I was there,  I picked up some silver and platinum closed jump rings in 4mm and 6mm sizes for stitch markers.  I also picked up some of those shepherd's hook earring things to use as locking stitch markers.  I thought that was pretty clever, particularly when I went to what passes for a knitting section and saw that there were no locking stitch markers other than in the Jumbo size. 

Well, that's all for today, folks.  We shall see what the rest of the month brings for knitting.  In the meantime, in front of me right this very instant I have a Ripple weave, and the two Skyp socks.  And so why am I thinking about casting on for another sock?  Well, because I have knitting ADD, of course ...

Hooray for May

The marking is finally done.  Then I had to co-read another 4 papers, but it wasn’t the end of the world. Two additional students ended up deferring their final exams, so there will be one more small round of exam marking (and creating- ugh).

But enough.  On to other things....

Remember these?

They're Floral Gums.  They're perfumey.  I used to love them as a kid.  But then again, I also like Thrills gum.  My kids think the Floral Gums are disgusting. Quinn says they're not exactly gummy, which is true.  They're kind of hard. And kind of addictive.

I finished the second Monkey sock, so now I have a pair.  I like how they turned out.  I was pretty disappointed initially with the Mango Tango colourway when it arrived.  But it grew on me as I was using it.  So the Monkeys are a hit.  I did 64 stitches with 2.50 mm needles.

 I finished the first Epic Lattice sock.  It’s a little snug because it was done on 2.25 mm needles and is only 64 stitches around.  I may end up giving that to Princess and knitting myself another pair on bigger (2.50 mm) needles.  It’s a great pattern – well written and clear. I will do the Green Goddess sock soon.

 

I also had a hankering to do a stripey sock, so I pulled out the Classic Minnie yarn from Nalani Yarns (which I had started in a pattern and didn’t care for.  It’s the Corn Snake on my Rav page) and decided that the yarn didn’t need anything more than plain stockinette.

I did 72 stitches and started with 2.25 mm needles for the leg, and then once I hit the afterthought heel line I dropped down to 2.0 mm needles.

I was going to try to do a forethought heel.  I pulled out The Sock Knitter's Handbook by Charlene Schurch and Beth Parrott.  But I have to say, it doesn't work so well if you're using DPNs.  I can't get my brain around it and there were going to be ridiculous ladders.  So I gave up and decided to do an afterhtought heel instead.

I have some icky Fortissima Socka in black which I'll use for the heel.  Or I may use the actual Classic Minnie yarn.  We'll see.  It depends on how much of the stripey yarn is left after the second tube.

  

I was using my Signature needles.  The size 0 (2.0 mm Signatures) are steel rather than aluminum, because apparently the aluminum didn’t work on the smaller size – it was too bendy.  The points on the 2.0 mm Signatures are not quite as stiletto as the points on the 2.25 and 2.5 and even 2.75 mm needles.  I’d say they’re more comparable to Hiya Hiya DPNs or ChiaoGoo DPNs.   They’re also quite heavy in comparison to the aluminum ones.  So I have used them for socks in the past, but they’re not my favourite.  To be honest, I prefer the Knit Picks nickel-plated size 2.0 mm needles.  (And I don’t know where on earth I’ve put them.  I can only find my 2.25 mms).

The other night as I was lying in bed, I was googling the Knitter’s Pride Karbonz.  I can’t remember why I started thinking about them, but I did.  I ended up ordering some from Webs. I ordered the 1.50 mm needle size (in case I want to work with thin yarn, and lots of stitches to make really dense socks), 2.0 mm and 2.50 mm needles. They didn’t have any of the 2.5 mm needles in stock.  So I ordered them.  The three sets together was about the same price as a set of 5 Signature DPNs, so the price point is right.

I wasn’t sure whether there would be join issues between the stainless steel caps (or are they nickel?) and the carbon fiber needles.

ETA:  nickel-coated brass.  Duh. 

When the Blackthorn needles came out, I was so excited that I bought 3 sets (plus a 3” cable needle).  They were priced somewhere between the Karbonz and the Signatures, but closer to the Signatures.  The packaging was nice (compared to the Karbonz) – the Blackthorns came in their own little zippered pouch, which I thought was a really nice touch. 

I tried to love the Blackthorns, I really did.  But it just didn’t happen.  They have an odd feel to them and have an odd sound texture.  I also wasn’t crazy about the tips because they were too blunt.  I used an emery board to make the tips a wee bit pointier, but it still didn’t help.  And the actual needles feel like they’re faintly ridged length-wise.  So I never knit more than a few rows with them.  They have been relegated to my “seconds” needle pouch.

I didn’t receive any kind of a confirmation or a shipping email from Webs, so I thought I would just cancel the order.  On Monday the Loopy Ewe Sneak Preview indicated that Sherri was bringing in the Karbonz needles, so I ordered a set of 2.0 mm, 2.25  mm and another 2.50 mm.  I also ordered 4 skeins of Biscotte & Cie because I’m currently (again) smitten with self-striping sock yarn.  I was pretty jazzed when I got an email on Tuesday or Wednesday saying that my order had shipped.  So I was about to cancel the Webs order.

Then I checked my mail and discovered that the Webs order had arrived.  Holy moly, that was lickety split fast.  I don’t know what happened. Canada Post is NEVER that fast.  And I didn’t get a shipping email from Webs or anything.

So I decided to try the 2.0 mm Karbonz since I was using 2.0 mm Signatures on the foot of the Classic Minnie vanilla sock. 

Based on my experience with the Blackthorns, and my undying love for Signatures, I wasn’t expecting much.  And I was actually kicking myself for having ordered more without having tested them.

But I am pleasantly surprised – more than pleasantly surprised, in fact.

The tips of the Karbonz are not as sharp as the stiletto tips on the Signatures (2.25 mm and larger).  But they are (almost)*  EXACTLY as sharp and pointy as the Signature 2.0 mm needles, and even have the same taper point.  I’ll see if I can get photos during the day.

*When I look at the pictures in close-up I can see that the Karbonz are just a wee bit more blunt than the Signatures in the 2.0 mm size.  

 

The body of the Karbonz needles feels smooth rather than ribbed.  That’s a huge plus for me. With knitting needles, there’s no such thing as ribbed for her pleasure.  As I said above, the join between the cap and the body is smooth and seamless and not noticeable at all.  I was expecting that there would be some drag because of the body of the needles, but it’s almost imperceptible.  I’m a tip knitter, so I end up concentrating all my work at the tips, but there is no friction as the rest of the stitches spread over the rest of the needle.

Some people have referred to the Karbonz needles as light and “warm”.  I agree that they’re pretty light in comparison to stainless steel needles. They’re probably comparable to the lightweight aluminum in the 2.25 mm and larger Signature needles.   In terms of warmth, I don’t really notice that one way or another. I guess if I put my finger on the tip and then compare with the body, then I can see what is meant by “warm” needles.  I’m not a bamboo knitter (gave that up after my first sock when I got smart and found Signatures), so I don’t have a passion for the “warmth” of bamboo or wood.  So the warmth factor for me is neutral.

Other reviewers have referred to the Karbonz needles as flexible. They aren’t flexible in terms of being bendy. Some plastic (and maybe the casein needles) and wood needles are what I would describe as bendy. I’m not a huge fan of bendy.  With the Karbonz, there is a little flexibility, but no bend.  I think you can feel that there is some give if you try to bend the needles, but they won’t break.

I assume that they also won’t bend out of shape in the way that the Signatures do and in the way that bamboo needles do.  I have a couple of Signature needles which are slightly and not-so-slightly bent, and I can’t stand knitting with them.  I can feel it.  It feels awkward and wrong.  Maybe I’m just being a bit Princess and the Pea about it, but I don’t like bendy needles.  The Karbonz seem to snap right back into position, so I don’t think that they will be bendy in that way.  To me, that’s a huge plus.

Remember this? 

Oh fer ****sakes, I just realized that the 1.50 mm Karbonz are 8” and not 6”.  I hate 8” needles for socks.  Blech.  Oh well.  But seriously, who am I kidding?  Am I really going to knit socks on 1.5 mm needles?

I will wait to see how the 2.25 and 2.50 mm Karbonz do.  I’m not sure how any of the Karbonz will do with things like k3tog and p3tog.  But so far on ribbing and stockinette and toe decreases, they are just fine.  I haven’t noticed any splittiness with the needles going into the yarn, so that’s a plus. 

These might even pre-empt the Knit Picks nickel-plated DPNs as my second favourite needles.  And for some things, they may in fact even eclipse the Signatures. 

So I am very pleased with them as a purchase.  The price is absolutely right.  For people who really like the Signatures but don’t really like the price point, the Karbonz are worth investigating.  At $14.95ish per set, they’re a good price, and they are much better value for the price than the stainless steel versions. 

So as a dedicated DPN knitter and usually a Signature knitter, these Karbonz get two thumbs up from me.  That may change in future, but for now, I’m pleased. 

In fact, I just cast on for the second Classic Minnie sock.

[And then realized that I cast on in 2.0 mm needles when I did the leg of the other one in 2.25 mm needles....]

I also purchased three skeins of yarn in Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label. I am in love with the January offering for the Year in Fiber club this year.  The pattern is one by Tanis herself, and it’s beautiful. It’s just the kind of pattern which appeals to me.  It’s like the repeating geometric Cookie A patterns.  The yarn for the January shipment was called Patina and it’s absolutely glorious. If it becomes a regular colour in a year from now, I'll get a skein then. (Same thing with Tanis' pattern). 

I thought about joining the club again, but this year Tanis is venturing into other yarn weights, and really I’m a fingering weight girl.  So I think the January shipment is the only one I would be desperate to have.  (That may change, depending on what else she comes up with for the year).

I was looking at the TFA site and noticed the Iris colourway.  I had yearned for it a while ago, and when I went back to look at it again, it was still calling to me. It’s as attractive to me as Hawaiian Bobtail Squid, and that’s saying something.  So I ordered a skein of that, a skein of Lucky Penny and a skein of one of the greys (Dove Grey ?  Shadow? The one with less blue and more pinky/ purple undertones).  They arrived yesterday.  What is up with Canada Post?  There is something seriously amiss when they can actually get stuff delivered in reasonable time.  I assumed that things would be slow now that Tanis and Chris have Rowan, but they were super speedy. 

Lucky Penny, Dove and Iris

 

And I can say that the yarns do not disappoint. They are lovely. 

Speaking of Cephalopod Yarns, I would really love some Mantis Shrimp, Jewel Anemone and Moon Jelly.  And of course a more purple skein of the Hawaiian Bobtail Squid. 

If I were going to make a BMFA order (which I am NOT), I'd get After Sundown, What the Foqua (love the name), Plum Crazy and Sabretooth Caterpillar.

In other non-knitting stuff, I finally baked the FIMO Christmas ornaments we made at Christmas.  Unfortunately, the big sock monkey's leg broke because I think he dried out.  (Really? They've only been sitting on the kitchen counter since Christmas...).

These are mine.

These are Quinn's.

I need to get some gloss finish for them, but that can wait.  

Here they are in close-up in case anyone is still reading down this far and is even remotely interested. No patterns.  All from my brain. 

 

Halfway There

It's almost the end of April. I'm halfway through marking.  Ugh. 

But since it has been a couple of weeks, I thought I'd do a wee (and by wee, of course I mean bloated) blog update.

Sometimes I decide to blog about the yarn frolics first, and other times I decide to leave them to the end.  And sometimes I blog in the order of the photographs in my phone.  That's basically how I know what to blog.  I do a blog post after uploading my photos to the computer.  It works for me.

So in random order....  A couple of Fridays ago, they were installing a new transformer at our head office building.  The crane was huge, and the transformer is huge. 

I'm not sure how high the chain link fence is around the transformers.  It's maybe 6' high or 8' high? 

In the top picture you can see that the two older transformers are the ones under the brick building. The new one is shorter.

On the same day of the transformer installation, I walked in the other direction along the waterfront boardwalk.  There were some interesting looking streetlights on one of the piers. 

The grouping is an artistic installation called The Way Things Are.

The two above are Got Drunk, Fell Down.  Snort.

The one leaning over the pier is Fountain. It's taking a leak.  Literally.

There must be a pump hooked up underneath the lamp stand which continually brings the water up  from the harbour.  It's hilarious. 

I just love the sinuous shapes. 

Here's the blurb.

And for those who are wondering, yes, it is almost ALWAYS cloudy in Halifax.  I haven't had decent sun for pictures since I don't remember when.  Ugh.  

The ironic thing is that with all of this Maritime Link stuff going on, some groups are saying that we should be harnessing photovoltaic power and drawing all of our energy from The Sun (which is actually bold like that on their website and in their letter to the UARB).  

Um, yeah. Not so much.  If we had to rely on solar power in Halifax, we'd be back to kerosene lanterns, candles, and tincans and string. 

On my way between the transformer and the art installation, I noticed a persian rug hung over the rails of a boat ramp.  Very bizarre. 

The Lad had to do a self-portrait for painting class.  They had to do an underpainting, and he did it in metallic fly-blue green paint.  Then he did the overpainting.  I love it.  Unfortunately, because we have no Sun, the picture doesn't capture the intensity of the colours.  

He literally did this in a day. 

I can literally sit and look at that painting for hours.  It looks good by Marilyn.  You can see how mesmerizing it is on the wall.

I'm so proud of my kid.  He's awesome.  His drawings and etchings are absolutely fabulous, but I'll leave those for another day.

The part you've all been waiting for is the yarn frolix.  So here they are.

My March Rockin' Sock Club offering finally came.  It's called Hope Springs Eternal.  I can't remember or see whether it's lightweight or mediumweight.  I like it well enough.  The yellow has the hint of scum which Tina is so fond of (of which Tina is so fond). 

The pattern is by Adrienne Fong (BellyButton Knits).  I like her patterns.  But I think I'll do it with a less variegated yarn. 

After I got my teaching honorarium, I treated myself to some Plucky Feet.  I like that base more than the Primo base, and I wanted some really neutral / work sock colours. 

From left to right, they're Milk Maid, Map Room, High Cotton, Road Trip, Lonesome Highway and Berry Cordial. 

In terms of what's actually on and off the needles, I worked my matchmaking magic and made another Happy Couple, so there's one less Lonely Heart in my languishing pile.  It's the Roadside Attraction socks by Star Athena (January Rockin' Sock Club pattern) using On Blueberry Hill Mediumweight. 

I have started the second Mango Tango Monkey and am part way down the leg. It's in a holding pattern for now.

Given my epic fail with the Falling Leaves, I decided to try a different pattern by Nancy Whitman.  I have three of her patterns -- Falling Leaves, Epic Lattice and Green Goddess. 

I started Epic Lattice using a skein of Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label Yarn in Chestnut. This is deep stash diving for me.  It's one of the first skeins I bought after becoming a sock knitter.  There are some uneven areas of colour in the sock.  Generally I love how soft it is, and it's a standard superwash Merino Nylon (10% nylon, I think, or maybe 15?).  The pattern is 64 stitches so I decided to use a 2.25 mm needle.  

It's really a tight fit.  I had trouble getting it on Lola to model it.  This will either end up as a Lonely Heart or it's going to someone with tiny legs. 

The pattern is clear and well-written, and it has a good explanation of moving stitches around to obtain a diagonal spiral effect.  

If I do this one again, I'm going to use a 2.5 mm needle.  I bet this would be gorgeous in a nice bright colour.

I am on the last 16-row repeat on the foot and then will decrease for the toes. I can probably get this one finished tonight.  Then tomorrow it's back to the red pen and the stack of assignments waiting for me.  Sigh.

Almost there, I keep telling myself, almost there...

Oh, before I go, I should mention that we went to see Stars on Ice last night.  It was absolutely fabulous.  It was breathtaking in places.  Some of the costumes were amazing and the choreography was just wonderful.  I would see that again in a heartbeat.  If you're in an area and Stars on Ice comes to town, treat yourself.  You won't regret it. 

I took Princess as my guest and she only said she would go along as a labour of love.  But she actually ended up enjoying it. 

I leave you with a dog shot.  We (I) finally washed their big dog bed, so now they're back to sharing a place to nap. 

Full of Fail

Well, I'm on a roll, and not in a good way.  I've been the statute for about three weeks and counting...I don't see any end in the foreseeable future.

In all kinds of ways I am full of fail.

But the only fail you're interested in is the knit fail.  I've had lots recently. 

I give you the wall of shame.

First off, there's the Sign of Four.  I thought the pattern would be great with this yarn.  The yarn is something from the Woolen Rabbit - Pearl, maybe.  It's a 2-ply superwash Merino, and it's a light fingering weight.  Yup, it's Pearl.  The colour is Mystic Mountain Pine.  It would make good work socks or man socks, but not with the Sign of Four.  It just gets lost.

I'm so full of fail that a) my finger is in the way when I'm taking pictures, and b) I can't even take a photo which is in focus.

 

 

I can't even find my project notes.  I've frogged it in any event.  I will use the yarn for something.  Maybe something lacy like Crooked Brook.  But Sign of Four?  Not gonna happen with this yarn. I was going blind.

FAIL.

My second fail was my second attempt at the Falling Leaves socks by Nancy Whitman.

I started it the first time in about May of 2009.  I got down the leg but ended up frogging it.  I was using Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label in Royal Flush.  It was purchased locally at The Loop.  I love the pattern.  I found the yarn in my yarn bin and decided to give it a second try. (The pattern /yarn combination; I love the yarn. It's a beautiful colour).

Then I decided that because I was having such success (even with the wacky cable which requires two cable needles) that I was going to make a slight modification.  Most of the leg is 1x2 twisted rib, and I thought it would look nice if I continued that after the gussets, and since it seemed to be nice on the inside, I would extend it all down the sole.  So the whole foot would be in 1x2 rib.

This is the point where you can shake your head and roll your eyes.  What was I thinking?  It would be like standing and walking on a row of twist ties.

I wasn't happy with the pick up on the heel flap for the gusset. So I tried to frog it back to the heel flap, but it just wasn't happening.  So I've frogged the whole thing.

FAIL.

But wait, there's yet another fail in here.

I had decided that I need to get rid of some of the Lonely Hearts and turn them into Happy Couples.  I decided to knit the second Cherry Lane in my Sweet Georgia Yarns BFL sock in the Cayenne colourway.

I was going along marvelously. I completed the leg.  I read my notes and the pattern about the heel flap which involves some sort of complicated counting and moving things around.  I've already successfully knit this sock.  Three times, in fact.

But I somehow managed to bugger it up. I ended up catching about 5 stitches of the branchy ferny pattern on the instep, and the instep should have had two of the lace panels with one panel of the branchy ferny thing in the middle.  Didn't happen.  I'm clearly an idiot.

But the odd thing is that the separation between instep and gusset is correct on the other side of the sock:

For the moment it's a FAIL.  But I think this one is salvageable.  I can rip out the heel flap and go back and try to fix my mistake.  I love the pattern, but I am heartily sick of this wretched sock.

As if this ignominy wasn't enough,  I had yet ANOTHER fail pattern.  I had attempted to knit the Canopy socks by Samantha Roshak from the BMFA Rockin' Sock Club a couple of years ago. I was using my STR Mediumweight in Mango Tango.  I got half way down the foot and decided it was too big. It was the 66 stitch size and I was doing it on 2.5 mm needles.  I was almost at the toe, and decided it just couldn't exist anymore.

Into the frogpond it went.  FAIL. And I didn't even get a picture of it -- another fail. So I gave up in disgust and knit a Monkey sock out of the yarn.  I like the Mango Tango, but mine has a fair bit of kind of a raspberry colour in it, which I wasn't crazy about when I got it. To me there's nothing mango-like about raspbery.

Anyway, there are colours in this yarn which make me do the happy dance. That beautiful saturated dark pink that's almost red is one of those colours which makes my heart sing.  So I'll forgive the raspberry. I just finished sock #1 just this very afternoon, while spending 4 hours trying to fix the computer, reinstall my Avast, etc.  I've had a lot of computer FAIL lately as well.

Anyway, here's the Monkey.

This is my third Monkey attempt.  My first ones were in that hideous Cascade stretchy cotton in an orange.  They're kind of child-sized now.  And yes, look at that laddering between needles on the toe of the right sock. Sigh.

The second pair was for my BFF and I used Shibui Knits sock.  I ran out of yarn and had to order a third skein.  They have since developed holes..

They were fairly early on in my knitting as well.  So now I'm on Monkey 2013.  But I think I need thinner yarn.  Almost all my STR is mediumweight because I hated the 360-yard skeins of lightweight.  It's not really enough yardage for a pair of socks, so I always ordered the MW for the extra 20 yards. Now I find I don't care for it much because it's too thick.  Princess likes it for wearing in her steel toes.

BTW, this little tasty image shows up on all my Rav pages.  You should check out my groups and see if you can figure out why.

I love bacon. I think we're having BLTs for dinner. Well, minus the L since we don't have any.  I think we'll have bacon, tomato and avocado sandwiches.

Anyway, I started the second Roadside Attraction afterfinishing Monkey #1.  I desperately need to get some pairs made.  Plus I want to make the March sock from the RSC. 

In terms of other interesting things, a couple of weeks ago when I was walking up to Dal I noticed funny things around some of the lightposts.  There were bits of foam which come from the edges of blocking foam and they were all yellow.  Then I noticed a crew of people actually doing the installation.

When I came back in the other direction after class, there were many more such wonders.

I found a pole and read all about it.  The mystery is revealed.

I think there are literally 7 of them.  They're all along Morris / University Avenue.

I think they're really quite cool. I love public art.

I have a whack of marking to do in the next two weeks.  I'm knitting today and maybe tomorrow and then it's no knitting until the marking is done.  Blech.

I finished listening to Gone Girl. I had tried to listen to it about three different times but couldn't get into it.  When I finally got past the first hump, it wasn't bad.  Then the second part hit and whammo!  It became way more interesting.  A lot of people don't like the ending.  I think it's terribly sad.  Poor guy.

I read Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce and then read The Blackhouse by Peter May.  It made me look up the Hebrides and the Isle of Lewis.  I want to go there before I die.  There's a great website.  I think it's virtualheb.com or something like that.  It's fabulous.  And I think one of those islands is the home of Alice Starmore, the knitting goddess.

I'm currently listening to Jack of Diamonds by Bryce Courtenay, and I'm reading Haunted Ground by Erin Hart.  If I have the opportunity, I'll read a book a day or more  I love reading. 

Anyway, if I'm silent for the next couple of weeks it's because a) I'm marking, b) I'm not knitting, c) I'm having yet more frigging computer issues, d) I'm reading instead, or e) all of the above. 

Hope you have a lovely week.  April is the cruellest month indeed. Bring on May....

 

 

 

Statue Week

I've been the statue all week.  One of these days, I want to be the pigeon.

Things are miserable on the personal front, so I'll skip right to the happy world of yarn.  This is the second blog post in as many weeks, so I'm feeling pretty virtuous.

I received my final 2012 Tsock kit from Tsock Tsarina and Moose Manor Hand Paints.  This one is absolutely spectacular.  It's a colourwork sock based on the Blue Willow china pattern.

As usual, the packaging was exquisite.  Where on earth did they manage to find Blue Willow tissue paper? And the little blue swallow stickers?  Genius.

The top package is a skein of bonus yarn.  The skeins are personalized.  My skein is Dynab*tch.  You can see my name on it.

I'm not sure if everyone got Dynab*tch.  I know when Holiday Yarns was the yarn provider, Jennifer Van CalCar (?) used to provide a skein based on everyone's favourite colour.  

Blue is not my favourite colour, but this is a nice skein.  The more I thought about it, the more I decided I really like it.  My Haystacks in the Ultraviolet Sea Sock are among my favourite socks, so perhaps I will knit something similar out of this yarn.

Anyway, the Blue Willow kit is gorgeous.  There's even a little porcelain blue willow gramophone. The stitch marker is a willow.  And Lisa put in the story of the Willow Plate Embellishment, which is kind of a bonus read.

The final sock is breathtaking.  This is from the Tsarina of Tsocks' blog.  I haven't asked for permission to share.  I'm considering it reblogging. You should actually check out the entire blog post.  It's genius.  And the close-ups of the details are simply stunning.

I might even be capable of knititng this sock.  Part of it is embroidery, and I'm okay with that.  

Lisa Grossman has hit it out of the park this year with the Shark kit and this kit.  I'm sad that I can't join for 2013, but the patterns will be available later.  I'll just have to continue to stalk (tstalk?) her blog and Rav group.

In terms of knitting, I was sort of disciplined.  I left you at the last post with my determination to go and wind some yarn.  Then I thought about the fact that I have an entire huge tub of wound cakes (including a bunch of STR), and realized I shouldn't wind more.

So I took On Blueberry Hill which is similar-ish to the colours of the Portland Plaid.  It's one of the skeins which was severely mangled and tangled in the bad puppy escapade of 2012 (or maybe it was 2011), so the ball band was eaten.  I had a wound ball and then the remainder of the cake.  My Rav page says that it's mediumweight, but it looks light weight to me.  

Anyway I did the first Roadside Attraction sock.  I cast on the medium size (60 stitches) on 2.25 mm needles, because the first attempt was 72 stitches and it was huge.  I added an extra 14 rows to the leg length, because in our house we prefer socks longer.

It's a great pattern for variegated yarn and is just a mix of 5x1 ribbing with some purl rows thrown in for interest.  The pattern continues on the heel.

I think these might be destined for Princess, because the 60 stitch version is a little tight for my tree trunks.

There's no pooling on the leg or foot, but it does the usual STR pooling on the gusset.  One side is red, and the other is green.

I did an Afshari gusset decrease.  I just think it's such an elegant and lovely-looking decrease.  

On the needles now I have the sedcond Cherry Lane sock by Felicia Lo.  I'm doing the second of the BFL socks in the Cayenne colourway.  I love the pattern -- it's fast, easy and intuitive.  It's a 60 stitch ribbing and then increases to 66 stitches for the leg.  I've decided I have to get second socks knit for the ones which I like.  I'm curious to try the BFL sock to see how it wears.  

It's still a little splitty and it's not as soft as merino when knitting with it, but I don't know how it will soften up.  I think there's a difference in staple length (BFL is longer, methinks?) which is why the BFL is supposed to be more hard-wearing.  It's a smidge fuzzy, though.  Anyway, I have that on the go.

I also have the second of the Ripple Weave socks in the Milkweed Beetle started.  I'm somewhere in the first repeat.  

I really, really want to do the Sign of Four socks by Anne Hanson, but I don't have the pattern. I have scoured through my Barbara Walker treasuries and my Vogue Stitchionaries to see if I can find the diamond tweed pattern.  I think I've found something similar, but I won't know until I swatch it.  (Which really means doing a dishcloth, because I am NOT going to swatch for socks.  Ain't happening....).

I asked Princess yesterday which are her favourite socks and why.  Her favourite pair for non-cold weather is the self-striping Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti socks. She loves the cashmere content of the yarn because it's soft.  And she likes the fit, which surprises me, because it's an afterthought heel.

So I guess I'm going to have to suck it up and do more afterthought heels for her.  (If it's not a self-striping yarn, I can do a forethought heel).  I'm not crazy about them because it's like you have to go back and do more work after the sock is done.  However, if that's what she likes, I guess that's what I'll knit.

Princess is knitworthy, so it's okay.

I had to pull some of Quinn's laundry out of the dryer, and what did I find?  The one pair of socks I knit him which he wears. In the DRYER.  Which also means he ran them through the regular wash cycle.  Princess and I use the handwash setting for our socks and then let them air dry on the racks. 

He's a heathen. What can I say? 

Some other day I'll talk about art and his stuff specifically. But not today.  

Today I'm going to go and lick my wounds and knit on the Cherry Lane sock. 

 

Actual Fiber Content

There has been some knitting of late.  There has even (gasp) been a yarn delivery.

I finished the first of the second pair of Ripple Weave socks.  I used HK Artisan Sock in Daphne (my mother's name) and used 2.50 mm needles rather than the 2.25 I used with the Skinny Bugga. As with the other sock,  I carried the twisted rib down the heel and onto the toe. 

There's a reason I use sock blockers and Lola the Leg for my photos.  I'm blaming this leviathan leg on a wonky angle.

The third photo (the one with the other sock on the blocker) actually shows a pretty close colour of what the SG Skinny Bugga Milkweed Bugga looks like.  

I also took some photos with my HTC One to see whether the colours would be more realistic.  Even though we actually had some sun today, the iPhone still wasn't picking up the green in the yarn.  

Yeah, this is closer to the real thing.

Anyway, after doing the pink Ripple Weave, I decided I wanted something fairly mindless and non-twisted. I had a skein of STR MW in Schwarzwald from the RSC 2 years ago. I originally decided to try a Hermione's Everyday Sock, but didn't like it, so I frogged it back and did a 2x2 rib.  I figured that I'd do it only 64 stitches rather than my usual 72.  I find often that my socks end up baggy and saggy, and I wonder if it's because I knit them a little big and without enough (or any) negative ease).

I liked the way the yarn knit up on the first one (bottom sock).  It reminded me a bit of trees.  So I was thinking of calling them my Tree Trunk Socks (see the acutal leg picture above, and you'll know why).  Then when I did the second one, the yarn was coming out differently.  There were more spots of the browny stuff, and it looks more like camouflage.  So they're my Camo Tree Trunks. 

I'm a sucker for 2x2 rib.  I just think it looks so clean.  I did the usual Afshari gusset.  On the first sock, I forgot to move it by a stitch, so that the heel (and instep) started with the k2 and ended with the p2.  It makes for kind of an awkward selvedge pick up and for the instep and toe decreases.  So on the second sock, I moved it so that it was k1 p2 k2 etc p2 k1, so there was a single knit stitch on each edge of both the heel flap and the instep.  Much better.  

I do love that gusset decrease.  That Hunter Hammersen is a wonder.  Look at that saucy sinuous little arch there between the heel flap and the instep.  It's so much nicer than a standard gusset decrease by the instep. 

I looked at my Rav projects and realized with horror that I have never done a red pair of socks. Ever.  And I love red.  Why haven't I done red socks? Am I saving the yarn for something? 

I want to do a pair of Lantern Socks by Star Athena.  I think they'd be great in red.  I don't have any red in a cake other than a skein of Arequipa which it turns out is something liki 60 or 80% alpaca.  Blech.  Not good for patterned socks.  

Just checked my stash.  There are a couple of contenders in there.  One is a Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label serendipity skein in Fire Engine red.  It has some tonal variegation, so I'm  not sure it's perfect.  There's also SG Tomato Frog, but that's in Bugga, and it's a little bigger.  I might actually dig out and cake my skein of Firecracker in Impulse of Delight Summit Sock.  I have a whack of Ruth's yarn and I love them.  I don't know what I'm saving them for.  It's crazy, isn't it?

There's also a divine skein of Plucky Knitter Plucky Feet in Karat Stick. 

But I do have a skein of SG Bugga or Skinny Bugga in Grouchy Ladybug already wound.  I started a Cookie A sock in it and then frogged it.  A quick check with Rav shows that it's the Bugga and not the Skinny Bugga.   Hm.  I wonder whether it will have enough stitch definition to make the Lantern really pop.

I always feel that I should only be knitting with yarn which I have already wound.  I don't know why that is, but it's how I feel.  Maybe I should haul out the Grouchy Ladybug.  Or maybe I should just work on the second of the teal Ripple Weaves which I cast on a week or so ago (March 9). Decisions, decisions....

The other thing I have decided to do is to knit my RSC club socks for 2013.  If I'm only in one club (and it's the only one), I should be able to crank out a pair of socks every two months.

I was able to download the dyer's notes and patterns when I ordered the club, but my yarn didn't arrive until Friday.

I have to say, I love this colour.  It's Portland Plaid.  The yarn is STR MW, so I think I'll hunt down the 64-stitch version (or whichever is closest to that).  

Hmmmm...Seeing the photos makes me want to go and wind a skein right now.  

All right, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to dig out my IOD Firecracker  and will take it and my Portland Plaid downstairs to be wound.  

I'm in pet mourning.  I'm allowed to be a bit irrational. 

The other thing I did today was to rearrange my room.  I love having a clean room.  I'm a bit of a lazy housekeeper, by which I mean I'm pretty much a slattern.  It's slovenly.  So when I make the effort and haul furniture around and dust and vacuum etc, it makes me happy.  Not happy enough to continue the cleaning crusade on any kind of regular basis, but happy for now.  

I'm all about instant gratification. 

Oh yeah, when I was transferring the photos from the HTC to the computer, I disocvered one of Jake.  So I'll leave that as my parting shot today. 

Jake

The dogs get a lot of press on the blog, proably because they're always front and centre.  But if you read my Rav profile, you'll see that I also have cats.  As of yesterday it was 6 cats.  As of today it's 5 cats.

We just lost Jake.

We got Jake in 1998. 

Jake came to us by way of the adoption centre at the animal hospital.  We don't know how old he was.  He was at least 2 years old when we got him, and that was 15 years ago.  So Jake was at least 17 and could have been older than that.

Jake was gentle.  He was my cat. He was definitely a one-person cat.  He liked to sleep under the covers with me.

I don't have many photos of Jake. Most of them were taken on the old Blackberry, so the quality is pretty poor.

Teeny Weeny Update

I was appalled when I looked at my profile on Ravelry and discovered that I did very little blogging in the last six months.  That's crazy.  I need to get back on the regular blog wagon.

So I'll post today even though there's not much new.

This afternoon I finished the first Ripple Weave Sock.  It's  a 72-stitch pattern, and I used Sanguine Gryphon Skinny Bugga in Milkweed Beetle.  Unfortunately, the iPhone doesn't give very good colour reproduction for some of the greens and reds.  The yarn is a divine dark teal colour.  I love knitting with it -- it's not too splitty and has nice twist and stitch definition.  I'm all about the tight twist.

I was a little concerned as I was going along, because the leg is tight.  The pattern is all twisted stitches, and that creates sock suckage.  This would be a great sock for a catwalk runway model with no calf definition.

There's approximately zero chance it will fit me.  Sigh.

It's on 2.25 mm needles.  Ironically, I've been finding that my 72 stitch socks on 2.50 mm needles end up being too loose. So I decided to go down a needle size but forgot to take into consideration the sock suckage.

I decided to carry on the twisted ribbing down the heel and onto the toes, because I actually like the look of the toes in twisted rib..

In spite of the fact that the pattern chart is wrong, this is a good pattern.  I'm enjoying it.

But I'm quite sure that it's not going to fit me, so I decided to cast on another pair in a larger size.  So I'm using a skein of Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in Daphne.   I'm also using 2.50 mm needles for the leg, and I think I'll go down to 2.25 for the foot (starting at the heel).

I don't really like to repeat the same pattern over and over, but this one is such a nice pattern that I want one pair which I can wear.

Since I got paid for doing my part-time academic class at the university, I splurged a little.  I bought Princess an iPhone 5 for her birthday, and I joined the Rockin' Sock Club and bought 6 skeins of Plucky Knitter Plucky Feet in the update from March 1.  The only funky colour I got was Berry Cordial; the others are all neutrals.  I prefer the Plucky Feet to the Primo Fingering. So I can't wait until that arrives.  And I'll be excited to get the BMFA yarn for January when it comes.   This year the patterns and dyer's notes are all in PDF format, so I already have them. 

So there it is for this week.  It's going to be another brutal week for marking, so today is my knitting day.

I've been feeling ill for the last couple of weeks.  It's time for a nap now.  More knitting later.

More Blue Socks

The marking is gearing up, so the knitting is gearing down.  Such is life.  Sometimes Dame Fortuna’s wheel is up, and sometimes it’s down.

The only knitting I’ve done recently is another pair of socks for Princess. She said they look like a storm, so they will be her Storm socks.  I decided to do the Intrepid Traveller pattern from the RSC club 2 years ago.  I had a skein of STR MW in Chapman Springs which I had already wound into a cake, so I decided to use that.  I’m on a bit of a blue / teal kick right now.

I started February 8 on sock #1 and finished it on February 9.  I started sock #2 on February 9, and then work and marking intervened, so I didn’t get it finished until the weekend (February 17).  Not bad for a pair of socks, though.

The pattern is easy to follow, and I realized it’s just a variation of the Skoosh socks which I’ve done several times.  It’s also like half of the pattern in Rubus Suberectus.  I really like it, but I’ve had my fill for now.  I’ll do something different for the next one.

Sock #1 pooled a bit, but sock #2 was more barber pole-y.

 

I did the Afshari gusset decrease from Hunter Hammersen. It’s so nice and tidy.  It makes me happy.  It’s just a standard decrease, but instead of doing it up by the instep, the decreases occur part way up the gusset.  For a 64 stitch sock, I count 15 stitches up from the middle of the sole and plunk in a stitch marker.  Then I do the decreases on the other side of the stitch marker until there is only 1 stitch left.  Remove the stitch marker and voila!  A nice tidy triangular gusset.

 

Given that I have about 9000 sock patterns, I am trying not to duplicate patterns too much.  I really want to do another Monkey.  I also want to do another Pomotamus because my Pomotamus was done in the early days and I used a yarn with no nylon. It has a huge hole in the middle of the instep. It’s not in any standard location; it’s just random.  A bunch of my socks have random holes. I’m not sure why.  It’s possibly dog-related or possibly just one of those things.

Last time I put on my Pomotami, I realized that they fit me perfectly and I love them. 

I decided to do the Ripple Weave pattern by Charlene Schurch.  It’s similar to Pomotamus, and that might satisfy my Pomotamus itch.  I have tried the pattern before but it has never worked out.

What I usually do with socks is chart the patterns into my graph paper knitting journal binder thing so that I can tote it around with me.  Paper and pen works for me; PDFs on the iPad don’t.  It’s how it is.

And after three attempts to chart it, I realized there is a mistake in the pattern.  So I decided to chart it my way and see if that works.

It’s not a big mistake, mind you.  But some of the yarn overs and ktbls are in the wrong place; instead of lining up in a nice diagonal line, there is a jog.  So of course when you go to knit it, it’s all wonky.

I did a slow burn when I figured that out.  It’s a Vogue pattern from 2006.  Surely a) someone on their staff is a knitter who proofreads and should have caught the mistake, or b) they could have at least done an erratum notification, given that the pattern was published 7 years ago or, most radical of all, c) they could have fixed the error and re-posted the pattern.

I get errata / replacement pattern notifications all the time on Ravelry.  In this day and age, it’s not rocket science.

And in terms of having to check for errata, once I’ve downloaded a pattern, why on earth would I go BACK to the original website?  It’s counter-intuitive. 

So I’m a little cranky at that.

On the brighter side, I decided to use alternating purl and knit long-tail cast on for the ribbing.  I used to do that way back in 2009 when I started knitting, but for some reason I forgot about it and have just been using the standard long-tail (which is essentially a knit stitch).

So I’ve started Ripple Weave. It’s on 2.25 mm needles and is 72 stitches around.  I have to say, I do like the alternating knit / purl cast on.  I’ve also been doing an extra long tail and weaving the tail in with my stitches for the first row.  It tightens up the gap between the start of the cast on row and the end of the cast on row, and it prevents me from having to actually weave the end in when I finish the sock.  Lazy much?

I think I might do the Afshari gusset again, and I might even do the twisted rib in the gusset. We’ll see.

The yarn is Skinny Bugga in Milkweed Beetle, so the colour is off in the photos.  It's a delicious deep tonal teal.  I love Skinny Bugga. It has a twist which is tighter than the Bugga twist.  And I'm finding that my Bugga socks get a little loose after they've been on my feet for a while.  The lower cashmere content means the Skinny Buggas are less soft, but I think they may look a little nicer. Good thing I have a zillion (ie. 58) skeins of it.  When I first started buying Sanguine Gryphon yarns, I could never catch the Bugga update, and often had to scramble to get Skinny Bugga. 

Because I’m on a yarn famine, there is nothing new to report other than that my fifth installment of the Tsock Tsarina sock club arrived.  This one is kind of a Mayan / Inca / Toltec / Aztec kind of a motif which looks way too complicated for me.  It came with a package of mix for Xoacalatl (which I think is Aztec for hot chocolate with chilies and cinnamon) and a little sun stitch marker.  The yarn is kind of a golden yellow ochre, which is probably my least favourite colour in terms of yarn.

 

I want to do Katniss, and I want to try cabling without a cable needle.  That will be the next cast-on.  I have a skein of HK Artisan in Daphne already wound, as well as a skein of HK Entice in Cabbage Rose. 

I leave you with the Three Stooges.

Yoga Cowl

The Lad asked me to make him a scarf or a cowl or something to keep his neck warm.  The idea of
knitting a scarf makes me want to poke knitting needles in my eye.  But a cowl is at least do-able.

And since I have made approximately 1 skein’s worth of progress (out of 9) on the sweater, I’m not really in much of a position to argue or refuse. Lesson learned: no more gift knitting.

So anyway, the Lad asked if I had to order some yarn for it.  I just looked at him and raised an
eyebrow. I have somewhere around 900 skeins in my Ravelry stash plus a bunch of Cascade 220 which is not in stash. I told him that I’d find something.

Originally he wanted something in emerald green.

I decided that I was looking at either a worsted or a DK weight.  I have zero interest in anything
thinner than that for a cowl. So I dug through the bins and drawers and came up with a handful of choices. 

I had a wound cake of a charcoal grey wool with alpaca which I had originally purchased to make felted clogs.  I can’t even remember the name of it and the tag is long gone.  I purchased it at the
Loop when I first started knitting in 2009. There was also a skein of a dark green in Cascade 220 (also in a cake) plus a couple of unwound skeins of Traveller (one from Sanguine Gryphon, and
one from Cephalopod). 

Naturally his first choice was the unwound skein of Goodnight, KY from Cephalopod. So I scowled.

I “suggested” that he might want to think about the skein of charcoal wool and alpaca because the alpaca would make it super warm. 

He told me it looked scratchy.

(Which is true – it has lots of little bitty hairs sticking out of it.  It looks like I’m knitting with cat.)

I told him to feel it. 

After stroking it briefly, he conceded that it was softer than it looked, and that charcoal would go with more of his outfits.  (He’s very colour coordinated in his outfits – his caps match the colour of his hoodies or sweaters and his shoes.  It’s a hipster thing.)

So that was the first problem solved.

The next problem was what pattern to use.  I looked up some male and unisex cowl patterns.  I ended up taking the stitch pattern from something and just doing a tube. The stitch pattern is some sort of wonky rib thing.  It’s only 3 stitches.  The rows alternate between K2, P1 and K1, P2.  That’s it.  Ad nauseam.

So I cast on 120 stitches on size 4.5 mm (US 7) needles and started with a garter stitch edging. 
Then I knit.  And knit. And knit.

I’m calling this the Yoga cowl.

Let me preface this by saying that I hate yoga.  I loathe and detest yoga.  Every time I do a yoga class I end up looking at my watch every five minutes thinking, “When is this over? How much longer do I have?” I can’t help it.  It’s the type A in me.  I find yoga excruciatingly tedious.

But that’s exactly how I felt knitting this stupid cowl.  I kept looking at it thinking, “When is this over?  How much longer do I have?”

I realized that I should probably use as much of the skein as possible, since it wasn’t going to be very tall.  But how to estimate when to stop the pattern and start the garter edging at the other end of the tube?

In a flash of brilliant insight, I decided to haul out the little digital kitchen scale which I bought for the purpose of weighing yarn.  So I very cleverly marked a spot in bright yarn at the beginning of a row, and weighed the ball I had left.  It said 9 g.  I checked it several times.

So I decided to knit another two or three rows and see where it left me.

So I knit another two rows and then weighed the ball again.  12 g.

WTF?

How did a ball of yarn go from 9 grams to 12 grams when there was less of it?

So much for that genius idea.

I knit for another couple of rows and weighed it again.  I noticed that there was in fact a decrease
of another gram or two, so I kept going.

When there was something less than a golf ball left (at which point the weighing was useless and I realized I had to go by eyeball and guesstimation), I decided to start the garter edging.  I did 4 rows and was getting very nervous.  The little golf ball was dwindling like a bar of soap on wash day. I bound off and have less than a yard left.  I have 30.5” of yarn remaining. 

Pretty good on the estimation front.

I shall get the Lad to pose for a photo tomorrow.  Or so I hope. I think he has to work tomorrow, but I’m not sure what time.  And we’re pretty short on daylight at this time of year.

But on the up side, perhaps the thought of a warm neck will be enough to get him to agree to walk the dogs.

Specs:  it was started one night this week (maybe last Sunday?) and worked on a bit.  When I
picked it up at 4:30 today, it was about 2” done.  I finished it tonight and it’s about 10” tall.  It’s about 18” around, but will stretch. So for my Rav stats, I guess it was January 20-25.

Update:  the middle photo of the unblocked cowl was taken today (now February 4, 2013).  The lad has worn it virtually every day, so it's creased and rumpled. But it's well-loved.  So the Lad is possibly knitworthy after all.

But last night he came in and asked me if I knew how to make those cowls which are actually a long scarf joined in the middle which could be wrapped around the neck two or three times .... I pretended not to hear him.

On other fronts, I have also knit another dishcloth from Dishcloth Diva.  This one is Stainless.  Apparently I started it January 3 and finished it January 21.  I had a case of dishcloth ennui.

I also knit a pair of socks for Princess.  I started them last weekend and finished them this past weekend.  The pattern is Holidazed by Anne Hansen.  I think the yarn is too busy for the pattern.

The yarn is one of the Three Irish Girls Sock Yarnista sock club offerings from several years ago.  The yarn is Finley Fingering, which is a 2-ply 100% merino, and the colourway is Larkspur.  The colour repeats are quite short.  Until today, I had the companion solid skein of Delphinium blue.  But then the dogs got into the knitting room and I discovered this.

But I'm digressing again.  I think the Holidazed pattern is good in terms of snugging up and maintaning its shape on the foot and leg.  So that's a plus.  It was fairly easy to work.  I did the V heels from the Socks a la Carte book, and it's basically a regular heel flap and gusset but instead of the middle of the heel starting with 7 or 5 stitches, its down to 1 stitch.  I'm not a huge fan; it looks a little pointy.

Anyway, the pattern is fine, but I just can't stand it with this particular yarn.  The yarn is so busy that the pattern disappears.  And I can't stand seeing socks knit in variegated yarn when the variegation completely overpowers the stitch pattern.  This is a yarn which was born to be vanilla socks or used in colourwork. 

Princess saw them and said they remind her of the Arctic, so they're the Arctic Holidaze socks. I can't abide them, and I'm happy to give them to her.

For me I've started the Chiendent (dog tooth ????!) sock by Rose Hiver.  It was the SKA (Or some other group) mystery sock in May 2012.  I'm using Hazel Knits Entice in something like Cabbage Rose.  The tag of course is snugly tucked in the middle of the cake of yarn.  I'm only about an inch into it.

In other ramblings, I saw this posted on one of the bulletin boards in the law school today.  It's chuckalicious.

*These Aren't the Droids You're Looking For