KarenJoSeattle

B is for Bordhi and little sock-heel Bowl

I'm wide awake, so you get a post before I head off to Arizona in the morning.

If you like to knit socks and can manage to get to a class with Cat Bordhi on her new sock architectures, do it. Go with an open mind for seeing the way socks fit a foot in new light.

One of the things Cat discovered is the the 'gussets' don't have to be in pairs or in a particular location on a sock. The 'gusset' on the mauve mini sock I knit in class spreads over the top of the instep and is created with yarn overs.

On this red mini-sock-in-progress the 'gusset' is expanding in the arch area on the bottom of the foot.

In the full size samples Cat brought you could immediately see that these new architectures give a traditionally shaped sock when finished. Despite all expectations and preconceptions to the contrary.

Cat now uses her version of Judy's Magic Cast On for almost all of her sock knitting, though she includes others in her book. She is currently encouraging Judy through the process of writing a book on the many ways to use this cast-on after convincing her to write it.

One thing that hadn't occurred to me - with this cast-on, if you just continue to knit flat on the first needle you end up with a provisional cast-on with a needle already threaded through it back at the start.

Cat insists she's not really that smart, just willing to suspend her beliefs and think about things in new ways. I think she'd need both the willingness and the smarts to come up with and work through the things she does.

Cat has also come up with a toe up technique for constructing a heel that looks like a traditional flap-style, but nothing ever flaps and you don't have to pick up stitches.

And she showed us a technique for picking up her short row wraps and putting them behind the stitch on the needle. This both hides the wrap and makes it much easier to knit it together with the stitch.

In class we made little baskets using the heel turn twice to learn the technique before starting our mini socks. This lovely little one was knit by Cat. Mine had a decided difference in gauge between the two halves of its bottom.

If you can't get to a class with her, get the book and then check out her YouTube videos of many of the new techniques in the book. The videos are very informal and a bit funny, like Cat, but very informative and clear, also like Cat.

A as in Absence, Air Travel, Allergies, and 'A Few Days Late'

...And an Apology for being away from the blog for so long.

I spent a week in California helping my mother to clear out 20 years of stuff and dust in her house so she can put it up for sale. If you remember when we last left our heroine, she (me) planned to replace a house with one to share with Mom that will suit Mom's current and future needs better than the ones either of us own currently.

We ended up with all of my siblings and a few accessory family members there for the weekend, too. I'm the oldest of five, so we had lots of help. Plus, my mother works much harder than most 80 year olds. I expect her to be around for another decade, at least, especially given her family history. And we finished the whole house in a week. Anyone who has been through this with a parent will appreciate the effort that took.

Fortunately for me, Vicki runs a fairly loose ABC-Along, so I can feel OK posting these Photos several days late for A now that I've re-emerged. They are still in alphabetical order.

I caught the Airporter bus just as the sun rose and the city started moving around.

Just as I ran out the door, I realized in my late-night packing I hadn't wound the yarn I planned to knit on the plane.

Luckily for me (I'm on a streak), Stephanie had recently blogged on Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton knitting from a skein. As in 'Don't Wind Your Yarn Into a Ball'. You just untwist the skein, lay it over your knees or other support, and twist it back up when you stop.

This works surprisingly well with the set-up on a plane - no ball to roll away and a handy tray as support for the hank. You do lose the ability to hop up quickly when the restroom becomes vacant.

Vicki-note the purple squares in that photo. I started on the group project. Unfortunately, that last square is not much further along, though it's been past that point twice since this flight.

I tossed the whole pile into my purse as I got off the plane, then managed to pull the needle out of the knitting while digging something out of my purse. The other tries related to techniques that didn't work as well as I liked.

That pretty much covers the last week and a half worth of knitting , until today. Today I attended the first of two workshops on socks with Cat Bordhi (of the knitting around on two circulars and Moebius knitting). See here for a good description of what a workshop with Cat feels like. Details tomorrow.

More Swatching for EPS

Today I remeasured my swatch for my EZ EPS v-neck and found rather than 3 1/2 inches I only had 2 3/4 inches. I continued on it tonight while watching TV and fiddling with photos for Ravelry (and posting a bug report). I have 3 inches now, but will continue for at least another half inch.

Tomorrow I'll take a ferry to Bainbridge and back, so that will make for some good knitting time. I want to get to the point where I can cast on the body before I fly down to California for a few days on Thursday. The body tube should make for good travel knitting. I assume that at this small gauge the body will take quite a while, but I can easily start a sleeve if I need to. These parts don't take much figuring.

Here's a quick overview from KnitPicks on EPS. EPS stands for Elizabeth's Percentage System, a sweater designing sytem from Elizabeth Zimmerman's books.

I also started to reread some sections of Knitting Workshop on the bus today. I was headed to Remedy Teas to meet with my friend, so I did manage to reschedule that meet up before my trip. We enjoyed Remedy, which has 150 teas to choose from and nice light from a wall of windows on this sunny day.

Afterward I found two silk flower arrangements at a store across the street that will work very well in the Bainbridge house in lieu of fresh flowers while it's up for sale. I even managed to get them home unscathed on the bus during rush hour. The woman who sat next to me commented one would go really well on a dining table - the one I planned for the breakfast table.

A is for Allergies - ABC Along 2008

I need to get tested to figure out what I'm actually allergic to.

Besides allergies to molds and mildew, mohair, dust mites, my cats, angora, manure, milk, basically anything with a carbon atom in its molecules if I inhale it, in the last couple of years I've developed allergies I can't identify with symptoms I haven't had in the past. These new allergies seem to be both contact reactions and food allergies.

Occasionally my eyelids react to something. The first time they did about 15 years ago, they got red, swollen and tender after we burned some probably moldy wood in the fireplace; then again very time we used the fireplace or the air pressure caused down drafts until we got the chimney cleaned.

Last year I thought I reacted to a pinkish eyeshadow. I still think that, but it seems to have opened some door to reactions to other, unidentifiable agents.

This episode may relate to something I ate. Unfortunately, it's likely not something we cooked but rather a meal out, so I don't know what it was.

On a more positive note, I've knit enough swatch to determine gauge for my EZ EPS Sweater. I've also had more wine than I'll mix with actually measuring for gauge at this time of night, so tonight I'll just admire the thing,though it looks like I'll be around 7 stitches per inch. Not too bad for sock yarn and I like working with this Fleece Artist Merino 2/6. I bought this through The Loopy Ewe, but it's currently out of stock.

The color still shows as less green in these photos than in real life. The color way, Olive, does have more gold than green. The photos at Loopy are closer, though each skein has slightly different proportions of the colors.

Since Last We Met

I've been absent from the blog for a couple three days.

In that time I have had a 2-hour phone conversation with my Mom about home plans, exchanged several e-mails with realtors in two states plus innumerable with my Mom and various siblings, met with a realtor here at our island place who told us we should get our house on the market by the first (yes, of February) to beat the spring rush while the market here is still good but we do need, among other things, to replace the floor in the basement hall and bathroom first, forgot to take my 'A' photo while on the island, arranged for a contractor to fix the broken pipe there this week, found the battery in the Land Rover (needed now to move some stuff into storage to prep the house for sale) died again and vowed to sell the thing soon, had the house cleaners first say they couldn't come to the city place for two weeks then call and say someone canceled and they could come in two hours (ah, life is hard, isn't it, but we weren't completely unpacked and needed to meet the realtor), attended a Knitting Guild board meeting, learned how to put together the Guild newsletter file, discovered I'd left a set of symphony tickets off my calendar and had to fiddle the time for the newsletter, arranged a key for the California realtor to get into that house so he can price and list it (that's two houses on the market at once for those who are still with me and counting), sent long e-mails to contractor and window washer/pressure washer and garden help guy, scheduled and unscheduled tea with a friend I haven't seen for 2 months and now may not see for another 2 months, and got my hair cut noticeably shorter which sometime seems good and, then again, not.

Oh, and I finally cast off this friggin' hat. The cat's still weirded out by the road trip back to Seattle and constant in-and-out of humans since. She follows me around demanding a lap NOW and is jealous of the attention the finished hat gets. So, you get the photos you get.

And I'm going to bed. Plus I'm so looking forward to my appointment with my aesthetician tomorrow when I can relax and the world goes away for a while.

Sometimes life is too good. I'm really not complaining, despite how it may sound. I'm just tired.

May you live in interesting times.

PS Welcome RobinH to the world of blogs. Then note the blog roll that includes just me and The Yarn Harlot. Made my day.

The End of One Year and the Start of Another

On the last day of 2007, while driving back from our place in California to Seattle, my car turned over 20,000 miles about ten miles before we got to the hotel where we would spend the night.

That seems significant, but I should point out that I've owned the car four and a half years old and it's made three trips to California and back, so that mileage mainly means I don't drive much.

We spent New Year's Eve watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies while eating too much chocolate and drinking champagne - just what we'd have done if we'd celebrated at home rather than in a Holiday Inn Express along I-5. Usually we try not to drive back over the holiday, but this year the way the storms lined up our window to cross the passes fell then. We checked in about five, so got off the road well before most crazy drivers got on it.

I ended the year with two active WIPs: the Jaeger Biscuit cardigan and the hat for my nephew. I'll probably finish the hat tomorrow. The cardigan hasn't progressed much in the last couple of weeks, but should get back on track now. I have half a sleeve, seams, and button bands left.

Tonight I cast on for my EZ EPS V-neck as part of the informal KAL and Ravelry group started by Margene. My plan is a basic saddle-shoulder sweater. I realize the v-neck will make things a bit dicey as EZ really didn't do them, but that's what I like and will wear. She did do Henley's so I know I can make this work.

I decided last year that I want to mostly knit sweaters like ones I buy and ones I wear regularly. I'm sure I'll knit some things just to learn something or try something new, but I'd like that to be the exception. I wear basic, classic stuff in nice materials.

As part of my knit-what-I-wear campaign, I bought Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 for this sweater. That's a sock yarn - a beautiful, hand dyed, washable, 6 1/2 spi sock yarn. I expect to be knitting on this long after everyone else in the group finishes theirs.

The beginning of my swatch in this photo contains the cast on (a sloppy long tail) and six rows of knitting. If I fudge a bit I can get this to measure a half inch. The body of the sweater will end up between 250 and 300 stitches. And every inch will require somewhere between 15 and 20 rounds.

But it will be gorgeous, based on my tiny bit of fabric so far.

Once I've done an EPS sweater, I plan to try one as a zipped cardigan with a collar and cables - out of DK weight. I'll have cables running up the sleeves and saddle shoulders and a set of cables on either side of the zipper. I want to do the collar double-knit if that doesn't turn out too tricky.

Oh, and I actually put that project photo on Flickr and then entered the sweater in my Ravelry notebook. And it didn't take me all night to figure out how to do this. Ta da.

My list of 2007 FOs will need to wait until the next post.

2008 - It May Be a Heck of a Ride

We made it home between storms without too much trouble. I've unpacked about 3/4 of my stuff. That last quarter is always the hard part, isn't it?

I'll do a 2007 review tomorrow when I have more time. Tonight I'll just lay out some plans and hopes for this year and muse about some things we've decided to deal with sooner rather than later.

On the knitting front I want to get in some events I've been meaning to do or trying to get into way too late for several years now. I have my registration for the Madrona Winter Retreat next month, possibly for too many classes but I figured that the first time usually involves a too-full schedule. Plus, I happened to be at my computer at the right moment and went for it. (P.S. Registration reopened and they have class spaces.) I hope to have as much luck with finally registering for Acorn Street's June retreat.

For classes, I start with two all-day workshops on sock architecture with Cat Bordhi later this month. I want to concentrate on technique classes this year rather than project classes. Unless, of course, I come across a class for a project I just have to do.

I want to knit myself at least three sweaters, with an unofficial actual goal of five. My first will be a basic V-neck pullover based on EPS, which just happens to coincide with an informal EPS-along Margene suggested. I'd like to do a few pairs of socks, at least three, to improve on my fit and technique, but even more I want to find a couple of beret and toque patterns I like and get really good at hats. In among these projects I want to do a bit of cabling and some stranded and slip-stitch colorwork. I've done little bits of both, but not enough to feel I've actually 'done' them and know what I'm doing.

In the pattern area, I'll start with taking a rectangular shawl I designed as about my third project and translate it into two other weights of yarn plus a scarf. I also want to do a sweater pattern, probably a zip-front collared cardigan I have in mind, and a hat idea I've got running through my head.

Does that sound too ambitious? I knit slowly relative to some fast knitters I know or know of, but not really slowly.

For my everyone-has-them category of plans, I'd like to finally get to that weight I've been within a pound and a half of several times in the last two years. And I need to get back in the habit of exercising regularly in addition to my weekly Pilates lesson. That I've done before so I know I can.

In the could-make-for-a-crazy-year category, we have some things we need to do for both my mom and Spousal-Unit's parents in the next few months, like assist after back surgery and sort years of accumulation for a home-downsizing. And we've decided we need to make some changes to further help them and to improve our own set up. This will involve selling and buying houses, some out of state, one that needs a couple decent-sized projects completed before selling, and one that will probably involve some remodeling once we find it.

Oh, and did I ever mention that I became the reporter for the Seattle Knitters Guild newsletter a few months ago? Well, the current editor is stepping down, so I need to learn some things like PageMaker and how to actually put the newsletter together and to set things up so I can do it from out of state.

Tomorrow I'll start my swatch for my EPS sweater, or as much as I can do since I started the new year yesterday morning by falling onto my right hand and have some bruised spots plus a sore wrist with an already bad history. I'll also contact this month's Guild meeting speaker for newsletter details and send initial e-mails to two realtors. Maybe also go survey the broken pipe in the yard of our Bainbridge Island place. Very maybe dustmop the floors.

Happy New Year. This could shape up to be a wild one. My biggest plan is to try to enjoy the ride.