AmphibiaKnits

FO and 1/2FO

Thanks to everyone for the vote to keep going with the STR Variegated socks.  I finished the first sock and then did the second sock.  I used the sole gusset decrease on the second sock.  Princess has already claimed them.

Those socks are why I still have a deep and abiding love for STR variegated yarns -- the brighter, the better. 

I finished the first Shur'tugal sock.  (For the longest time I couldn't remember where the apostrophe was supposed to be located -- Shurt'ugal? Shurtu'gal? Sh'urtugal? Then I realized it's like Portugal, so now I know).

The colour is more green and less blue.  Same excuse as usual.  I did frog back and shorten the heel flap and then do the gusset decrease.  

Hmmm.... clearly the dog hair needs to be vacuumed from the floor more often....



This may just end up being a lone sock, however.  The needles which Sebastian ate were the ones in Shur'tugal #2.  The yarn is all tangled.  It will require valium to untangle.  I am not a patient woman when it comes to yarn barf.  But then again, it gives me an excuse to cast on another pair.

This week I also received the final installment in the Tanis Fiber Arts Year in Colour club.  The yarn is Blue Label (80/20 swMN), and the pattern is a hat by Kirsten Kapur. 

The second photo shows some of the variegation in the yarn.  It's a lovely colour. 

I was futzing around on Ravelry the other day, and I can't remember what I was looking at, but I found a link to the Skoosh socks.  I liked the look of them and liked the pattern, but I wasn't crazy about the stockinette foot with the 3 columns of the pattern on either side.

But I thought it might be a good pattern for some of the more outrageous BMFA Socks that Rock colours.  So I plucked out Rock Star from my bin of wound yarns, and I grabbed a set of needles. 

I did 2x2 ribbing with 64 stitches on 2.75 mm needles.  I think for the next pair I'll go down to 2.50 mm needles.

I didn't like the fact that the slipped stitch things were so close to one another, so instead of doing one row of knit between each patterned row, I did two.  I had initially decided to do a vanilla sock, so the first two or three rows are plain knit.  Then I did two rows of the skoosh pattern and decided that it needed an extra row of knits (maybe even 3 rows).

Princess came in and saw them and immediately declared them to be for her.  

And yes, they really ARE that bright.

I did a double gusset decrease on the sole.  Well, it's more like a 1.5 gusset decrease on the sole.  

I was telling Christine about htem, and she pointed out that the pattern is very similar to Intrepid Traveller by Neuroknitter (Gail Maracci) from this year's BMFA Rockin' Sock Club. 

I looked at the pattern, and it's very similar, but there's a purl row between each of the knit things in the Intrepid Traveller pattern.  And Gail has three rows of knit stitch for every row of the pattern. 

So my modification is like an in between version of the two of them.

I liked the pattern so much that I decided to cast on another pair using the beautiful yarn from the November Sweet Georgia sock club.  I forgot to take pictures this morning with the others, so you're getting kind of dark shots.  I'll take more when there's more to show. I decided to do a picot hem rather than a ribbed hem.  I actually quite like doing the picot hem; but I have to concentrate on the row where you pick up the stitches from the cast-on edge and work them with the regular ones.  And no, I don't do the method that requires a tubular cast-on. I'm far too lazy for that.  What I did this time is a long-tail cast on over a single needle rather than my usual double needles.  It worked fine.  

But I think in future I won't bother with the picot; I'll just keep it as a hemmed edge by using all purl stitches for the middle row.

I can't even describe how beautiful this yarn is.  There are purples and blues and greens in among the gold and the rust.  I'm using 72 stitches on 2.25 mm needles.  Thus far the dog hasn't found this one.  It's in the project bag which Christine sent me (she had matching ones made for us), so it's zipped away from Mr. Iron Jaws.

I'll do better pictures in real light, but for now you get a sense of the colours. That little hint of green just makes my heart flutter.  These are lovely jewel toned socks and will be for me.  Princess is not getting near them. 

For my second Rock Star sock, I am going to do a 2x2 rib, with the knit stitches using the skoosh pattern.  It's a yo, k2, pyoo (yarn over, knit 2, pass the yarnover over).  I think that with the 2 purls will be a genius rib.  Can't wait.  Neither can Princess.

My parting shot tonight is the less badly behaved of the dogs.  You can see Sebastian's lower half behind them.  He's barricaded upstairs by a very tipsy Walmart baby gate.  He sees the doctor tomorrow for his post-surgery check-up.  Hopefully he'll be allowed to remove the cone, but I'm not putting him with the other dogs for at least three weeks.  He needs time to heal before their vicious jaws rip him to shreds and pop the good vet's handiwork again.

As Christine has pointed out, this guy has cost me next year's yarn budget with these surgeries.  I still have to get the other two fixed.  But thus far, they don't need anything surgical (apart from Desmond's brush with phimosis and the ensuing sedated lube job).

Delilah is the one on the left. She has the most pug-like face.  I personally think she looks like Yoda with those goofy ears.  But she's less green.

Desmond is on the right.  His face has more Boston Terrier in it.  He's a quarter Boston Terror, as I like to say .... 

Okay, over and out.  Time to do some knitting and maybe finish the Rock Star sock. 

 

 

 

 

The dog ate my needles

The little bugger got into my knitting bag and into my WIPs. He destroyed my Shur'tugal #2. More to the point, he chewed up an entire set of SNA 2.5 mm needles. I have to lie down until I stop feeling faint. I'll blog tomorrow if I haven't been arrested for dogslaughter.

Back to the Drawing Board

Well, Magda, I apologize for the lack of puppy cuteness.  Today the beasts made their first foray into snow.  8" of the white stuff is nothing compared to these guys.  They are still pooping machines.

Sebastian is going for yet MORE eyelid surgery tomorrow.  His first cherry eye made a reappearance two Saturdays ago. So the very nice vet Dr. Kersey is going to re-do the eye, neuter him, and if there is any time and anaesthetic left, remove the hernia (which is apparently all fat and cosmetic only).  I drew the line at removing the dew claws because a) I think they're kind of cute and b) I can't afford it.

Honestly, this dog is the most expensive dog on the planet. I am going to rename him Platinum or something.  

And this time he'll be in isolation for a month.  Good thing Amazon is starting to like him.

When we first got him and took him to the vet for his first vaccination, he weighed 4 pounds.  That was back in September.  He now weighs 19 pounds.  And he still has 6 months' worth of growing to do.  Sigh.

Good thing he's cute.  

On Saturday I spent the night with my friends Heather and Rob. They have three dogs also.  Two are Irish Wolfhounds and one is a Liamberger (?Liamburger?).  Finlay is the male Irish Wolfhound. He's the size of a small pony.

Seriously, his back is counter height.  But he's better behaved than my beasts. 

In terms of knitting and yarn, there has been some.

This week I received my Sweet Georgia sock yarn for November, as well as my November SG Nudibranch, and my replacement yarn for August from Janel and Cookie.  

The August yarns for the Janel Laidman sock club are Lorna's Laces in Satsuma and ? Liberty ? Victory ?  And the Cookie A yarn is a SW Merino / Silk 2-ply sport weight blend from A Verb for Keeping Warm. It's called Sugar Cookies or something like that. 

The SG Nudibranch offering is from the Baltimore studio. This month we have more info on Nudibranchs (pronounced nude-ee-bronx), another silk scarf, and a Nudibranch pattern from Hansi Singh (Hansigarumi).  

I've done a Hansi Singh octopus and have several of her patterns; the Nudibranch will make a nice addition. 

The Sweet Georgia is a Cashluxe Fine (sweet!) in an autumnal colourway.  It has more green in it than this, but you get the general idea.

I want to wind this into a cake and cast on. The Sweet Georgia Yarns Cashluxe Fine is one of my favourite yarns. 

I ripped back the first Shur'tugal and re-started from the heel flap.  I had originally made it 36 rows, but then went back and decreased to 30 rows as written.  I started using the double sole gusset decrease, but the whole thing was awful.  So I went back and re-did it with a single gusset decrease on the sole.  I finished it and wove the ends in today.  One down, one to go .  I even started the second sock.

Then of course I got distracted and cast on a vanilla sock using a wound ball of HandMaiden Casbah. Then I had to sleep because of my migraine. 

We've had our first snowstorm here, and it was awful.  It started at 8 this morning, about 4 hours ahead of schedule.  We were originally supposed to get rain.  We got snow instead.  We have received about 30 cm.  It's awful.  Many people were caught unawares and without their snow tires. Fortunately we have our snow tires on.

Now I'm off to do some more knitting. More cute puppy pictures in the near future ... 

 

Out with the Old and in with the New

I am going to keep the Variegation Variations sock and frog the others.

But of course I felt it necessary to cast on a new sock in anticipation of all those needles being freed up. I cast on Shur'tugal in Sokkusu Original in Ocean Cruise.

I love this sock.

I am going to try Turtle Girl's double gusset decrease on the sole instead of the standard decrease on either side of the instep.

In other news, the savages have been hard at work shredding my fleece / sheepskin.

How do I embed video in the blog? Good question. For now the still shots will have to suffice.

 

 

Fall Cleaning (WIP Roundup)

It's time for my semi-annual re-organization of my knitting projects.  Some WIPs I will keep, some I have already frogged, and some I am on the fence about.  Perhaps my gentle readers can help with the undecided WIPs.

I am notoriously promiscuous when it comes to my WIPs.  Instead of finishing one thing and starting another, I just blithely plow on to start whatever tickles my fancy.  Occasionally I even finish a pair of something.  Often I have a single sock.

Since the return of my knitting mojo, I have started and frogged probably five or six socks.  Possibly more.

I have also learned much about my yarn lately.

This is pre-org.

This is a lost cause.

Now that the little bastards have discovered yarn, nothing is safe. Apparently they think it's dental floss.  And there's a bone right there.

In the pile of WIPs which I am not going to frog, we have Methuselah.

This is a bonus pattern from Alice Yu for part of the 2011 Knit Love club.  It's a very "spicy" cabled pattern.  I normally shy away from cables because of the extra time they take.  I'm an impatient knitter.

But I decided I have to at least give this the old college try. I'm using a skein of Hazel Knits Piquant Lite in Nickel.  (I think it's called Nickel).  The pro of this yarn is its fabulous stitch definition.  The con is that you have to be careful about making sure you catch every single ply. I'm using my Knit Picks nickel needles in 2.0 mm because they're a little less pointy than the Signature Needle Arts needles, so they're slightly less likely to split the yarn. I also decided to do size large which is 96 stitches.  This one is slow going.

I'm quite sure it's called Methuselah because I'll be 900 years old by the time it's finished.

It's actually related to Vignoble, which is a stockinette sock with a nice cabled panel. 

Speaking of Vignoble, here it is. I have started this particular sock four times now.  I started it in Sokkusu Original in the Brighton Rock colourway because I was too impatient to wait for the Vintage yarn to arrive.

Apparently I was too impatient to read the pattern, because I neglected to knit the first inch of cuff properly.  So into the frog pond it went.

Then I started it again in Sokkusu Original in Ocean Cruise.  I can't remember what happened there -- I think I did size large, and it was going to be too big, even for me.

Then I started it again in the Brighton Rock and did the cuff and about 17 rows of the pattern.  I can't remember why I had to frog it -- something happened.

So I started it again using Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in Posy. The stitch definition is a little less crisp than with the Sokkusu, but I like it nonetheless. The Artisan is a thicker sock yarn.

When I look at the cable panel, it seems to me that what it needs is a row of purls on either side to set it off nicely.  But I am not going to bugger up something by plowing ahead when I have no clue what I'm doing, so I shall leave it as it is.

I also started Cookie A's Twisted Flower in my Sanguine Gryphon Bugga in Love Bug which Christine gave me.  It's the old pattern (not the one from Knit Sock Love), so it has the 2x2 ribbing rather than the 1x1 twisted ribbing.

It's full of twisted stitches and cables. The colour is lovely -- a bit more variegated than I first thought it would be.

I love working with the Bugga and I love the feel of the Bugga, but I don't think its stitch definition is as crisp as it could be.  Obviously what I need to do is to try a cabled or twisted stitch sock in Skinny Bugga to see how it compares.  I know I like the Buggas for lace, but I'm not sure about twisted / cabled stitches.

I also have the Cookie A Jubilee in my Sokkusu Original in Siffie.  It's sock number 2, so I will actually get a pair out of this.

I have not found any cons to the Sokkusu Original yarn.  It's a lovely tightly twisted yarn, much like STR lightweight, and the colours are beautiful.  It's thin, but I think I like thin.  Christine doesn't like thin -- she prefers beefier yarns.  I'm going to send her my skein of Lapis so that she can try it.

I am also knitting Velma from the Cookie A sock club.  I'm using Tanis Fiber Arts Purple Label -- I think the colour is called Seafoam.  It's very much like Bugga in that it's a 20% cashmere MCN, and it's super soft.  I also love Tanis' colours. Even the blue, and I'm not normally much of a blue person.

Speaking of Tanis Fiber Arts, I have also cast on for the second Prism sock.  I'm about 4 rows in, but it signifies to me that I will indeed have a second sock.

So those are the things on the needles which will stay on the needles.

The things I have frogged include the Anne Hanson Pinecones in HK Entice in Chocolatier.  I love the yarn, but I was trying to convert the toe-up pattern to a cuff-down pattern, and I had left it so long that I forgot the modifications and I just lost my mojo and I couldn't figure out what I was going to do with the heel and gusset.  So now the yarn is resting and awaiting a new inspiration.

I started Shurtu'gal (Shurt'ugal?) in Slackford Studios Samite Sock in the Wisteria colourway.  This is the yarn which leapt out of my window at P. Cove Road.

One of the many reasons I love the new Socktopus book is for the very easy method for doing left and right twisted stitches without a cable needle.  I wanted to use the yarn and I thought Shurt'ugal (Shurtu'gal?) would be a perfect pattern.

Wrong.

The yarn is 50% merino, 50% silk.  While it makes a lovely soft yarn which I think would be perfect in lace or in something much simpler, it simply does not work for twisted stitches (or cabled stitches).  It's not even a question of the stitch definition being lacking.  It's a matter of the 4 plies becoming unravelled.  I did about 7 rows of the pattern after the cuff and knew that I had to frog.

The yarn has a beautiful sheen and is lovely and soft, but you can tell just by looking at it that the plies are fairly loose.  When you're trying to insert a needle into the second stitch from the back and then reinstert into both stitches, it's a lost cause.  I will find some other pattern which will showcase the Samite Sock properly.  Shurt'ugal isn't the one.

But I do have 2 skeins of Sokkusu Original which could be used for the pattern.  I could either do the Ocean Cruise or the Brighton Rock.  I seem to be a bit pink-happy at the moment, but I don't care.

Christine and I are going to do a Socktopus KAL -- we'll pick a pattern from the book every two months.  But if memory serves me correctly, she has already knit Shurt'ugal, so I am technically free to do that one one my own.

Last I have the WIPS about which I am on the fence.

The first is the cuff down Everyone Outta the Pool Pattern on the Bijou Bison Ranch Tibetan Dream.  It matches my Ikea duvet cover quite nicely.

But I'm just not loving the pattern.  I've done something wrong.  I think I started with 72 stitches, and now I have some other crazy number.  I can't figure out what I've done wrong and where I went wrong.  The fabric is also dense (which is good, I guess) but not terribly stretchy (which is not good).

These are going to be for Princess f0r when she returns to work and has to work outside in minus a zillion degree weather.  I am tempted to frog them and just do either a vanilla sock or a plain ribbed sock.

What do you think, gentle readers?

The next one I'm on the fence about is V-Junkie using my Sweet Georgia Tough Love Sock in Honey Fig.  I love the colour of the yarn, and have tried three different sock patterns so far.  So far, no go.  I thought V-Junkie might be a good one for it, but there seems to be some spiralling with the honey colour, and I'm not sure I like it. 

In terms of the architecture of the sock and the pattern, I like it. It reminds me a bit of honeycomb, which is appropriate for the colourway.  But so far I'm only meh about how it's coming out.

Do I frog?  Or do I persevere?  I'm not sure that I love it enough to want to make two socks. And the problem is that if I frog it again, the yarn will go away to a drawer for some indeterminate period of time.

Then we have Janel Laidman's Moderne in STR Mediumweight in Deep Unrelenting Gray.  I discovered that I was doing standard gusset decreases (which is how I interpreted the pattern instructions) as well as the decreases in the instep pattern, so I have had to frog back to the heel flap stage.

The instructions for Decrease Gusset are as follows:

Instep stitches - work following chart 3

Heel stitches - p1, k2, p1, k until 4 stitches remain, p1, k2, p1.

I think what I did was saw the k2 and assumed it was a k2 together (followed by a ssk on the other side). I am obviously not very precise when it comes to reading directions.  So I see now what I did wrong, but the question is whether I frog or pick up and fix.

You can tell how easily I am distracted and how quickly I lose interest when something doesn't go my way.  I'd rather frog almost an entire sock than go back and fix it.  How crazy am I?

Another questionable one is one from the Wendy Knits Lace book.  I am using STR Sock Candy in one of the variegated colours.  I just find cotton so hard to work with.  It's like knitting with molasses or something. I already know how much I dislike toe-up socks because of the heel, so I'm kind of thinking I should just quit now before I get to the stage where I have to frog it anyway.

The two remaining questionable socks are a Variegation Variation in STR (in a colourway which I can't remember).  I am on the foot, but I'm not sure whether I should frog it.  It's not quite as stretchy as I would like, although it's more stretchy than the Bijou Bison Ranch yak sock.

I thought maybe what I should do is just frog and try to knit a vanilla sock.  But then I looked at the cuff and realized that it's going to pool in a barfy way, which will just make me cranky.  The variegation variation stitch patterns mostly avoid the pooling (other than on the instep gussety part).  I decided to do a reverse stockinette gusset, which seems to help with pooling, but looks a bit icky.

Do I frog?  Or do I keep going?

The last one is the Cookie A Flicker in the Woolen Rabbit Harmony sock in New England Red.  I really think this yarn is better suited to one of Hunter Hammerson's Silk Road Socks.  I am tempted to frog it and repurpose it for a different pattern.  The colour kind of screams oriental rug at me.

Having frogged a bunch of projects, I now have more needles.  I am using the SNA tubes in the needle case which Christine gave me for my birthday.  The needles themselves fall out of the case, but they're perfect in their little tubes.  I have them arranged from 3.25 mm down to 2.0 mm.  There are a couple of empty tubes because a bunch are in use.  But the needle case makes me happy.

So that's where I am in terms of my fall knitting.

The dogs are currently sleeping.  When they wake up, I will corral them all and take them to the frog pond for a walk.  Or maybe I'll do that tomorrow.  It's bloody cold out today.  There was even snow earlier.

Right now, I just want to hunker down with my audiobooks and my knitting.  Of course, I have to figure out which project to work on. 

I should be responsible and continue one of the WIPs.  But now I'm thinking again about Shurt'ugal and how it might work with a nice tightly twisted yarn.  And the Sokkusu Ocean Cruise is calling to me...

I do like the pattern.  And I need something more greeny blue.  I think I'll go grab Socktopus and start afresh.  I'm a profligate flibbertigibbet, I know. 

Anyway, comments and suggestions about the fate of the WIPS would be gratefully appreciated.