KarenJoSeattle

Nesting With my Yarn

Let me tell you something that does not work. Linen stitch does not resist the pull of a cat's claws. At least it doesn't at the gauge I knit it in my cats' throw.

Well, at least now that I've accepted that, I don't need to finish crocheting a crab-stitch edge all the way around and back. But I do need to find where I stashed the poor thing a few months ago when I was cleaning up for company so I can use it in one of the cat beds (thus no photos of the issues). They do love it, so the project was worth it. Or will be once I find it.

For the new ottoman throw I'm going to try double stranding this Silk Mountain by Noro (nice FO photos in that link to the Noro site) in a seed stitch. I know the seed stitch won't show very well in the boucle, but I've found the stitch fairly good at resisting and hiding cat pulls on other projects. And I like to knit seed stitch. I knit continental, i.e. I pick, so I can get a nice rhythm going.

I think I may take this to California when we go down for the holidays. I always need a lot of semi-mindless knitting then. We go for six weeks.

But for now I'll just enjoy and decorate with the unknit yarn for a bit. It fits in well with the other things. And it wasn't much less costly.

What the...

   

The latest version of my Pinnate Shoulder Shawl in Silken looks like this tonight.

Last night, with a couple of inches less knitting done, I spread it out to measure the length.

I unrolled one of the cast-on edge scallops, apparently for the first time since I cast it on.

   

   

   

I seem to have managed to drop a K3tog in the very first row and then picked it up, or something, soon after.

I will fix this. I will not start over. The edge loop, already retrieved from the crochet edge chain, waits on a safety pin. The fix will allow for proper blocking.

   

   

   

   

Somehow. Stay tuned. Geek knitting at its finest -- I hope.

Are We Having Fun Yet?

So, I decided to take a little break from the gift project and the 2-socks-at-once socks and whip out a scarf/mini-wrap in this skein of blush-colored Rowan Kidsilk Haze.

I want something somewhat dressy that I can drape over my shoulders at the symphony or the ballet. At both, our seats are in the path of the air conditioning vents. I'm winging it on the pattern with the eyelet ridges from Barbara Walker I like so much in between sections of stockinette.I started with several rows of garter stitch.

This would be my first lace-weight project. It would be, that is, unless i rip it all out -- again.

This is two days worth of knitting. Please excuse the dark photo.

I started on US9 Clover bamboo. The tips were way too blunt for this stuff. The next best choice I had with me was US8 Inox coated needles -- a bit too slippery but the sharper tips help a lot.

There's little to no hope the one yarn store here will carry Addi Natura, which would probably be the best choice. The new Addi lace needles might be good, too, but they're not available much of anywhere yet.

I keep grabbing part of the stitch below, or slipping instead of knitting, or mysteriously adding stitches. Plus, the knitting on this goes soooo sloooow. Is this yarn really this fiddley to work with or is it just me?

How many mistakes can you see even in that small photo? I guess this will count as a learning experience. I am getting better and even a bit faster. And I no longer feel in danger of all the stitches on the left needle flying off every time I reposition my hand or yarn or stitches. And I've learned how to correct my most common mistakes if I catch them right away or to drop down and knit back up many of the rest.

You know your knitting day didn't go well when cleaning the kitchen was more satisfying.

Yesterday, before I started on this piece, I must have looked particularly approachable while grocery shopping. First, a woman informed me and the other woman browsing the same aisle that she'd just been told her breast lump biopsy had come back benign. We both hugged her appropriately.

Then, the bagger who waited to take my cart back from the parking lot asked how long it would take for a Mother's Day card to reach his mother. I could assure him his mother lived within a day's mailing distance.

The Best Laid Plans...

In a couple of days when things are settled again, I'll go back and edit whatever got overlooked in the sudden and precipitous posting of last night's entry.

Just before 2AM, the actual post time, I heard that something's-wrong, Lamazze-style breathing coming from the bedroom where Spousal-Equivalent slept. Or where he had slept until awakened by kidney stones -- his 6th really bad attack in his life.

Few things frustrate and torture more than the inability to help a loved one in that much pain. Ten years ago I worked as an RN for 10 years so I find the helplessness especially hard.

We got home from the ER at 7AM. By the time we get to a hotel room tonight I'll be a zombie.

I hope to post again tomorrow night when we arrive in California. I will have just spent two days in a car with two cats and an S-E recovering from kidney stones or, possibly, passing more.

Fortunately I'd almost finished packing, other than last minute stuff. I narrowed down the knitting projects to this:

And I added one more book.

Who Do I Think I Am?

I'm not a fast knitter. I'm not slow, but I doubt I'll ever finish a sweater or giant lace shawl in a week or less like Stephanie Pearl-McPhee seems to be able to.

Tomorrow morning I leave for four weeks in California. Actually, not a total of four weeks. I fly back on the 16th to attend four days of workshops with Sally Melville.

This is what I have set out as knitting projects to take:

Three projects I'm actively knitting -- my two-socks-at-once, the jinxed green socks, my Not-Pink 'Little Pink Thing' (which is a gift I hoped to finish before I left but will mail back).

A large rectangular shawl I need to crab stitch edging onto -- Old Project -- I finished the co-ordinating sweater 5 years ago.

A smaller rectangular shawl I'm doing in Blush Baby Cashmerino -- Old Project first started 3? 4? years ago.

Two colors of Lace-weight mohair for quick scarf/small shawl projects -- my designs in my first lace-weight pieces.

Cream silk/wool for house-socks -- another project based on the 2-sock class I just took to reinforce the techniques.

The cardigan of Mountain Colors 4/8s wool I want to cast on soon -- I need a non-scarf/shawl/sock project.

A blue and beige ribbon for some sort of scarf -- just 'cause.

The pile includes projects I'm close to finishing and have been working on lately, projects I haven't worked on in ages, things I told myself and others I'd start soon. Noble choices, but I have no hope of finishing even half of this in a month.

Then we have the reading material. I have in the past read this much in a month, or even less, but not since I started knitting.

This is not a completely leisure trip. It will include weed-eating and tree trimming on 3/4 of an acre.

I have until 10 AM to decide what to leave behind. Fortunately, or not, depending on your point of view, I have room to take it all if I really want to.

A Tisket a Tasket...

...Two kitties in a basket. 

Today I went to the second class on two socks at once on a magic loop. We turned the heels. I had a couple of anomalies in numbers of stitches and where they were, but could manipulate things so they worked. I need to do another pair of these soon so I remember the techniques.

We made a Dutch heel. After building a gusset by increasing with make 1s, a few stitches in the middle are used to knit a flap. Pick up stitches around the flap and decrease the gusset back down.

I found the construction interesting. The heel turn makes little pleats.

My foot came out a hair longer than I expected based on trying on while knitting up to the heel. As a result, the heel doesn't lie flat against my foot. Since I planned these as Pilates Lesson socks rather than shoe-and-sock socks they'll be fine. The next pair I'll need to be more conservative in my length estimates. 

I'll take nice pictures of the figure 8 cast-on when I do it again. The ones on line don't have some of the details I was looking for.

I'll use this class pattern for house socks in some off-white Rowan Wool Silk I have. The pattern involves less yarn torture than the others I've done and I don't think this yarn will stand up to much.

Another shot of cute. Is this actually comfortable? They spent hours there.

Ta Da!

The color on this yarn really is much lighter than it photographs.

If I go straight to bed, and Spousal-Equivalent's parents don't wake me with their normal early routine, I can get 3 hours of sleep before I go learn to do a heel flap from the toe up. Fortunately, I'm meeting my neighbor Karen, who's in the class, for coffee first.

Randomness

JINX ON YOU

The Green Sock #2 Jinx continues.

While at Churchmouse Yarns yesterday, I grabbed another skein of green yarn. It was the wrong green.

The label tells me this is 017. The bands from my used yarn read 016. It's definitely darker. I can't exchange it until Monday.

The heel also has several small holes along the short-rowing edge.

NEEDLES IN A HAYSTACK

I was at Churchmouse for a class given by Karen Alfke titled Confessions of an Organized Knitter. We share our organizational obsession.

One of the tips I learned will be very helpful as I'm one of those knitters with so many needles that I never know where all of them are. They end up in various projects and project bags rather than their file box home.

Karen uses a system similar to a classic library card system to keep track of her needles. She notes on an index card what needles she has removed from storage to put with which project. The card stays where the needles normally live until they return.

When I set up this system I'll talk more about the details.

TWO TOES

My 2-at-once socks look pretty good and fit well. However, I need about 3 1/2 more inches of foot plus gussets by 9AM Sunday.

Spousal-Equivalent's parents arrive for an overnight visit sometime tomorrow. I must get groceries before they get here.

At least S-E's family are all knitters or former knitters, so I have hope they'll tolerate my mad push to get the socks to where they need to be.

I've made some progress on the Small Not-Pink Thing.

My Name Is Karen and I'm a Swatcher

I finally wrote down some of my thoughts on swatches.

If anything, I over-swatch. Here I swatched both for gauge and the entire color repeat I planned for a double-stranded, striped sweater.

When I relearned to knit in 1999, I picked (Continental), rather than the throwing (American/English) I'd done before. As a thrower, I knit so tightly I raveled the cheap 1970s acrylic yarn.

When I pick I knit loosely. On top of that, I like my fabric a bit tighter than most manufactures call for in the gauge on the ball band. Often I'm down 2 or 3 needle sizes from the one listed.

So, many of my swatches use more than one needle size. Rather than start a new piece for each needle, I run a row of garter stitch where I change sizes.

I also use my swatch to try any edging, such as the crab stitch crochet on this Mountain Colors merino ribbon piece.

Sometimes I just knot my tail to indicate needle size, as in the upper right corner here.

More often, I write information on needle size and composition on a 5x8 card I pin to the swatch.

I swatch with the type of needle on which I'll knit the piece. Circulars are the only form of needle I use, but they may be bamboo (preferably Addi Natura), Inox coated needles, or rarely, wood such as ebony or cherry.

If the piece will be knit in the round, I swatch in the round. Probably I'll swatch both flat and in the round.

I like to make (and wear) rectangular shawls, often with a pattern stitch. I try out possible stitches in swatches both to see how they look in that yarn, but also to see if I like knitting that stitch. A shawl's a lot of knitting to be doing a stitch I don't like to work no matter how pretty.

Sometimes I'll buy one skein of a yarn I like and knit a swatch before I commit to a garment's worth. Occasionally the swatch will be enough to enjoy the yarn without an interest in owning more. I may find I don't like how the variegation knits up or the feel of the yarn as I work with it.

Recently I started knitting small charity hats rather than swatches from many of my trial skeins.

Also only recently have I started to wash my swatches. So far I haven't had a sweater change dramatically when washed but I've heard enough stories from other knitters to mend my ways. I wash the swatch as I'll wash the garment. Usually that's in a bag on gentle in my front-loader machine.

So far I've washed three swatches before knitting the project and have one older swatch out to send through the next appropriate load before deciding how to wash the sweater itself.

Little Pink Thing

Yes, I played off the Yarn Harlot's post, but I am also working on a pinkish present I don't want to completely give away yet and I'm on a deadline.

Actually, this color reads more terra cotta, or 'old brick' as the Spousal-Equivalent called it -- not really very pink.

The yarn slips -- a lot -- which makes for some challenges. I quickly learned that I needed to put this one the swift before I untied the ends or even removed the label.

Otherwise, I get something like this:

An hour later I reached this.

Untangling could have been worse. This yarn slides around too much to make knots. I assume I'll have issues with not knotting when joining yarn in the piece.

I'll write up a review when the thing is done and presented. Luckily, I had some warning on the traits of this yarn. Some needs overrode those concerns.

I also finished (yeah, yeah, except for sewing in the end) my 'purse project' hat. The yarn here is Rowan Tapestry, 70% wool, 30% soybean protein fibre, in shade 175. The label calls for 5.5 sts per inch on US6s. I worked 6.5 sts per inch on US5s and have plenty of stretch for a cap.

This yarn has just enough halo to look and feel soft. It splits fairly easily and when I use it again (which I will) I'll use less blunt needles than the Clovers I used here.

Here's a moral dilemma question.

This hat was a gauge swatch, practice in magic loop technique, and a trial of a pattern I'm devising. Also, I used it as a project to get back in the rhythm after more than a year of no knitting. I intended it to be a charity hat when finished. Some of the split stitches are noticeable and if you look closely the decreases don't all line up nicely.

I also have another hat that was a first magic loop project. It has some yarn splits and a mysterious yarn over I sewed closed.

Do I still donate them, mistakes and all?

Second Sock Jinx

Green sock #2 seems to suffer from Second Sock Jinx. The jinx is not mine; it's on the sock.

This is the sock with the over-tight provisional cast-on that wouldn't present loops when pulled. Then the working yarn a few inches from the stitches got caught in the zipper of the project bag. That required cutting and starting a new end.

Now, it's run out of yarn.

I forgot from the first pair of green socks that I can't get a swatch and 2 socks of the desired height out of 3 skeins. I won't get more yarn until Thursday.

The sock's in a time out until then.

Dream In Color

As of today I've been blogging for two weeks. I set a goal of an entry everyday for a least two weeks, preferably for a month. So far, so good, but I'm going to keep it brief tonight. I'm running short of sleep lately and can catch up tonight if my brain will actually stay asleep once it gets there.

I'll post thoughts on swatches tomorrow. I have no thoughts tonight.

The Yarn Harlot mentioned Dream In Color yarn on her blog today. The yarn I'm using for my 2-socks-at-once class is from Dream In Color. It's labeled '100% Superfine Australian Merino Superwash Spun and Hand-Dyed in the USA.'

Gauge listed is 4 to 4.5 sts per inch on US 7 to 8 needles. The needle in the photo is a US5 Addi Natura. I get between 5.5 and 6 sts per inch on it.

250 yards per skein; less than $20 for a skein that should do a pair of socks. I bought mine at LYS So Much Yarn.

The photos of this yarn are darker than the actual color, 280 November Muse. The main impression, especially in the balls, is a rosy, coppery tone; like a lighter version of Mountain Colors Red Tail Hawk.

There were no knots or joins in my skein when I wound it. The yarn has a tight twist and really wanted to wind into a tight ball. I tend to split my yarn as I knit, but have done that a bit less than average with this.

I like the fabric I'm getting -- dense without stiffness.

Whole Lotta Swatchin' Goin' On

The sun shone today. Winnie took advantage by sleeping in sunny spots all day. Heat loving cats in Seattle quickly learn to exploit any sunshine.

May 17th through the 20th, Churchmouse Yarns and Teas hosts Sally Melville in 7 workshops over 4 days. I signed up for all of them.

This evening I sat down and knitted up all the homework swatches.

I rarely procrastinate on this kind of thing -- on other kinds of things, yes, but not on class swatches. Still, even for me this is working way ahead.

The fact is, I head out of state on the 8th and will fly back for the 4 days of these classes.

I've wanted to take classes from Sally for years. She's a professor who studies methods of learning and has a reputation as an excellent teacher. I come from a family of teachers.

Also, I think of these classes as reward for and part of my return to knitting after more than a year (maybe two) away.

I'm so excited.

These swatches also got me thinking about my swatching style. I'm a swatcher. I'll write more about my thoughts on this tomorrow.

3RD Time's a ...

After one more false start I now have a very nice pair of toes on one circular needle.

Unfortunately, if I stop at the number of stitches given in the class pattern the socks will turn out too small. I have a 9 1/2 foot.

I'll call William tomorrow to ask if the heel structure used accomodates another round of increases. He uses a Dutch heel -- not one I've done in my vast experience of two previous pair.

I also plan to ask for a review of the figure-eight wrap that starts this toe at the next class. I'm pretty sure I wrapped differently than we did in class. None of my wrap stitches needed to be reseated.

Still the toes look good so maybe the wrap technique isn't a precise thing. This could explain why none of the directions I found gave precise instructions on the wrapping.

Based on my experience, here are a few tips I have for working the toes when knitting two socks at once, toe-up, on a magic loop.

You need a way to keep track of where you are while alternating knit rows and increase rows. The piece starts out so small and loose that 'reading' your knitting is very difficult.

On the back of my pattern I made columns of 
K        K
M1     M1
K        K
M1     M1
covering all rounds needed to get to the correct number of stitches. Each time I finished a side I marked off its symbol. I needed to use this to figure out where I was 3 or 4 times.

Designate one ball of yarn #1 and one ball #2. On the first side of your first row, the yarn used for the far right (first worked) toe is #1. From there on you know if the working yarn coming off of the back needle for the toe on the right is from ball #1 you are ready to work the first side of a round.

If the yarn coming off the right-hand toe is from ball #2, you are ready to work the second side of a round. If you have the same number of stitches for each toe on the first side as you do on the second side you're about to work, you're doing a knit row. If the are 2 more stitches per toe on the previous side, you're working an increase row.

Do not let your cast-on tail flop down between the needles at one side of a toe and then knit it into your work before you have gone back and tightened your cast-on stitches using the tail. It's probably best to avoid that even after you've tightened your stitches but I only know about the before situation.

Tomorrow I want to start the swatches for the Sally Melville workshops I'm taking in May in addition to sock knitting and meeting a non-knitting friend for coffee.

One Foot, Two Foot...

I turned the heel on the second green sock. I've now reached about the same point I had on my first pair of socks when I put them down and didn't get back to them for 2 years.

This time I've printed out directions for several different toe and heel techniques. I have yarn already for 4, maybe 5 more pair, including that for the 2-at-once-toe-up class. Though I knit my first two pair for Spousal-Equivalent, all but one of my planned pairs are for me.

And today I reached a turning point. I had time to walk, but took a bus so I could work on my socks.

Astute readers will notice that, despite my new enthusiasm for sock knitting, there have been no pictures nor mention of a re-done pair of toes on a magic loop.

I think I've been procrastinating by knitting a second sock.

Tomorrow I have a completely free day. I plan to tackle 2-toes then, perhaps more than once, with some breaks of basic 2x2 ribbed green cuff.

If things don't go well, William, the class instructor, works and is available for questions on Sunday.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

This is the first sweater I knit.

Does your first sweater count if you haven't actually ever finished it?  If you carefully folded it, placed it on a shelf, and forgot you hadn't finished it?

Technically, the first sweater I started to knit was one from Very Easy, Very Vogue with a body made from 4 vertical rectangles in 2 colors. I'd knitted simple things 25 years before in high school and college.All I'd made since were swatches for the beginning  class I took to relearn. My gauge changed as I got more practiced over the course of the first rectangle. Mine was trapezoidal.

A year and another Beginning Knitting class later, I made this version of the cover sweater from the Vogue book. I changed the yarn to Sirdar Denim Aran. I changed the neck. And I changed the neck. And I thought about changing the neck again. Instead I folded it and placed it on a shelf -- six years ago.

I'm sure I intended to designate that shelf as the to-be-finished shelf. It was a very small shelf in a corner of a closet. This sweater filled it.

So, yesterday I went looking for the scarf that was my first lace project but never got blocked. I looked in some well organized though neglected stash areas and came across this sweater.

All it needs is those ends at the neck sewn in -- assuming the neck is done.

It's a bit big. I've lost weight. But I intended it as a comfy around-the-house sweater, so big's okay. The yarn's a good one for a Seattle Spring.

And I like the neck.

Talitha did not like the interuption from my scarf search.

Winnie did not like Talitha getting all the attention.

I've now finished my first sweater.

(The throw is Lopi in Stitch #9 from Lesley Stanfild's New Knitting Stitch Library.)

Tight as a Drum

Turns out I'd worked my provisional cast on overly tight so the stitch loops lay flat on the edge of the work.

Usually I knit loosely except, apparently, when attempting a new technique.

I did get them picked up and knit with great difficulty and a slip from US 3s to a US 1 1/2 needle, but resulting in a noticeable line. That side is now the bottom of the foot.

Also, the difference in guage made for a larger gap between the two completed sides than on the first sock, requiring some picking up and then decreasing away of stiches to close. Not a really obvious difference from Sock #1 once done.

So, we have progress on one toe. And a plan to practice provisional casts ons.

The 2-at-once toes will wait until tomorrow afternoon. I have a spa appointment and should be in an appropriate frame of mind for tricky new techniques afterward.

Astute readers of this blog (not that there are many readers of any kind yet) may have noticed a pattern of postings at precisely 11:30 PM.

As I write this my computer shows 2:44 AM. I often compose my posts after midnight Pacific time. A post with this time stamp would result in a gap in the dates of my posts. Not acceptatable currently.

The actual issue is a goal I set of a post every day for my first month. A tactic to make this a habit. In the long run, I'm sure I'll post at the time I write.

For now, though, I may appear unusually punctual. Actually, I'm just a night person with some hormonal sleep issues.

Take a Deep Breath

Today's knitting tasks started off well.

First I tackled the issue of getting the yarn for my 2 socks at once project into two separate balls  rather than one ball and a swadge of tangles.

I started with this:

...and I ended up with this.

And I only dunked the yarn in the coffee once.

The mess really wasn't the yarn's fault. Besides pulling from both ends of one ball on a project that involved a lot of turning, I frogged my guage swatch and left it in a pile from which one of the ends came.

Didn't get to restarting the 2 toes, however.

I decided to start Green Sock Toe #2 first, on the theory that it was the easier project.

The pick-up for the provisional cast on seemed easier this time around. I short-rowed along without incident until I turned the toe and started back up the other side.

Then I put it down.

When I came back to it I skipped a second wrap and didn't notice until ready to pick up the partially-existent wraps and knit. Learned I don't know how to unknit short rows. Frogged back farther and farther, couldn't even get the intial pick-ups re-picked-up straight, and ripped to the crochet chain. Cut off most of the mangled yarn and began again.

Looks beautiful, huh? But lurking on the other side is a provisional cast on that does not yield nice live stitch loops as it's pulled out.

A somewhat impotent one-toe orgy rather than the multiple toes promised.

Thank goodness tomorrow is a knitting circle day. I'll see if Karen can deduce what I did and if it's salvageable. The project bag already holds enough yarn to start again, if needed.

Between the first and last photos I did get some sorting and straightening done in both the guest/project room and the basement. Between that and the rewinding, things were accomplished.

And we had more sun than rain. Also an accomplishment here in Seattle.

Lilac Time

Lilac Time

The lilacs are flowering, sweet and sublime,

     with a perfume that goes to the head;

and lovers meander in prose and rhyme,

trying to say --

          for the thousandth time --

     what's easier done than said.

Piet Hein

http://chat.carleton.ca/~tcstewar/grooks/

I 'performed' that poem in June of 1971 for the end-of-year show in one of my high school English classes. I was 17 and wore an empire-waist dress; very short with puffed sleeves, in a lilac-grounded print of little sprigs of lilacs. My mother was in the audience.

So, today looked like this:

...and I spent it working in the garden.

My hands have three different kinds of thorn tips in them. I'll have a reaction to them by morning.

My fingernails no longer have mud under them, but they still need some serious attention.

I think I sunburned my nose. Not good, as I have a family history of melanoma.

Along the edge of the drive in 4 flats are 50 pots of hellebore seedlings I'll need to baby through the summer.

It was a great day.

Green sock #1 has been bound off and woven in.

I tried my friend Karen's suggested bind off first. "For that stretchy bind-off, try a Decrease Bind off (K2togtbl, then place resulting st on left needle and repeat)." Didn't like how it worked with the 2x2 ribbing. Thanks anyway, Karen. I want to try this one on the bottom of a top-down sweater.

Then I tried doing a Decrease Bind Off in pattern with P2togtbl. Looked odd and was a pain to do.

Next I used Grumperina's stretchy bind off. "Work 2 sts in pattern (either knit or purl). Move yarn to back (if the last worked st was a knit, this is already the case). * Transfer the 2 worked sts to the LH needle, and k2togTBL. Work 1 st in pattern (move yarn to back if it was a purl), * repeat between *. Important Note: I use a larger needle to do the bind off." http://www.grumperina.com/knitblog/archives/2006/06/so_i_knit_him_a_1.htm Not as stretchy  as the method I finally used; a standard bind off done loosely in pattern. I didn't even go up in needle size.

It came out great.

Tommorrow will be an orgy of sock toes. I plan to start the next green sock (a short-row toe with provisional cast on) and redo the 2 socks at once figure-8 toes.

The prediction is rain all day.

I've Got Two Toes

It was a lovely day in the neighborhood, so I walked across downtown Seattle to my 10 AM class at So Much Yarn; Two Socks at Once, Toe Up, using Magic Loop (one long needle). Thrilling and terrifying title. I ordered my latte caffeinated.

The 4 of us around the table were all fairly practiced knitters in general but not in either socks or magic loop. I thinks my 1 1/2 pair may have been the most sock experience. Everyone had done magic loop for projects other than socks. We all preferred 2 circulars to double points.

Still, when we started two figure-8 cast-ons side-by-side, suddenly we became beginners who could hardly hold the needles much less get the yarn where we wanted it to go. Apparently our experience was pretty typical.

But here they are: 2 separate things that are decidely sock toes on the same circular needle. The many mistakes and malformed stitches don't even show much, either.

The figure-8 cast-on is a whole new set of movements that my hands and brain need time to assimilate.  Knitty has a toe-up sock article from Winter '02 with photos and instructions on 3 toe styles, including the figure-8, on 5 double-point needles. They call it tricky.

William encouraged us to rip out and redo once or twice for the practice before next class. I'm one of two of us who developed laddering between the first and last stitches on our leading edge, so I want to  deconstruct what caused that. I have extra needles and yarn to play with and 2 weeks to get to the heel turn.

Oh, and I definitely need to rewind into 2 balls of yarn. Working from 2 ends of one ball is not a good thing. Another universal experience for our small group. Statistically significant despite the small sample size.

Walked home, packed the essential knitting projects and perishable food in the car, and caught a ferry to our place on Bainbridge Island. Once here I recovered from the rigors of the morning with a cat on my lap and a simple 2x2 ribbed sock leg on my needles.

Tomorrow I conquer weeds and a stretchy bind-off. Reassault of the figure-8 will wait 'til Tuesday.

The Architecture of the Foot

The rain returned this evening. Made for light crowds when I ran errands.

Even the staff at Whole Foods commented on how quiet the store was. They seemed to be enjoying the respite before tomorrow's Earth Day activities.

A warning for any non-knittiers reading this: the rest will be geeky sock-knitting stuff. Hi, Mom.

I decided to tink back my K2tog rounds rather than doing increases right after my decreases. Spousal-Equivalent really could use a bit more fabric around the point where his arch ends and heel begins. Around the ball of his foot where size is usually measured, the fit is almost loose. By the top of his arch, the ribs strech out flat even with over an inch of increases. High arches.

I ran the heel stockinette to 3 1/2 inches above the heel turn, then increased 3 stitches on each side for some leg room before starting to rib all the way around. Conveniently, the knit into the front and back increase I used blended into a purl rib.

Before I started reknitting what I'd tinked, I picked up the slack thread between two stitches that caused the hole I'd noticed. I've now found 3 more smaller holes. I expect the 2 at once toe-up sock class I start tomorrow will use a short-row heel. We should learn ways to avoid these holes.

A ribbed top of the foot seems essential to the fit of socks for S-E. Maybe that's why he always chooses that style. And why he wears Birkinstocks.

For his next pair of socks, I think I'll try a ribbed increase on the sides of the top as I move up the arch. Then I'll decrease back down for the ankle and up again in the ribs at the back as I approach the calf.

Yeah, I'm a process knitter. In my mind the first few socks are for learning. It won't bother me if they don't get much wear.

Better get my swatch done for my class so I can get some sleep.

Sproing!

It's Spring today in downtown Seattle. Cherry blossom petals clog the gutters. Even the most stressed of the street maples show signs of green leaves.

When I walked to Pilates at 11:30 this morning the thermometers read 47, though it looked like it should be warmer. Women's apparel ranged from cabled sweaters and jackets to silky T-shirts, strappy sandles, and goosebumps. I wore the sweater and jacket.

At 5 PM it's 59 and glorious outside. We plan to walk to the Ballet's Celebrate Seattle Festival, as we did last night.

Much more damp gloom will hang around here before summer weather arrives sometime after the Fourth of July. For now, we've shared our rain with Southern California, who needs it much more. And the sidewalks are elbow-to-elbow with people grateful that these little previews of summer happen in the Pacific Northwest.

Spousal-Equivalent tried on the sock foot and declared it to fit. I think I need to add a couple ribs to accomodate his high arch. He'll need them in the leg, too.

Also discovered that his heel is taller than the standard 2 inches. He wants another inch and a half of stockinette before I start ribbing all the way around.

I really like this toe-up sock thing.

Short Row Magic

Ta da! It's a foot. Accompanied by my clingy but well-behaved knitting partner, Winnie.

 

This is my second pair of socks and the first toe-up pair I've done. I'm using Wendy Johnson's pattern, with the help of her short row toe tutorial from Knitty. The Knitty piece was also helpful when working the heel as that's also short-rowed in this pattern.

I'm using Mission Falls 1824 wool on US4s at 5 1/2 sts to the inch. I've ribbed the top of the foot and am ready to start ribbing the leg. This is the style and weight my spousal-equivalent likes in his socks.

I'm not sure I got all of the wraps and turns done and picked up correctly in the heel.I had some trouble seeing and picking up the double wraps. Used a crochet hook most of the time to get the wraps onto the needle.

When I was done with the heel I ended up picking up 3 stitches on each side in the gap as I started back around the whole foot. I did one repeat of K2tog on each round as I did Grumperina's two inch trick of knitting a bit more plain stockinette to make the heel look tall enough. Made kind of a mini-gusset. Still, I have one small hole.

I got the measurements figured out for my cardigan, but I'm concentrating on the socks for my knitting time. I'm taking a class at So Much Yarn starting this Sunday. It's 2 socks at once, toe-up, on Magic loop. I think it will help to have a bit more basic sock experience going into that.

It's 1973 All Over Again

   Several days ago after shopping at Pike Place Market, I stopped by the newsstand to pick up some magazines. Besides Ornament, I grabbed a couple of knitting titles I'd never read.

   The guy who took my money looked over what I chose and said loudly, "Crafts, crafts, crafts. It's 1973 all over again."

   I stopped knitting the first time in 1973. For the previous 4 years I'd sporadically bought yarn and needles at the variety store in the small town where I lived.

   I could choose 100% wool or 100% acrylic. Acrylic came in 8 colors to wool's twelve plus some variegated, but cost a third less. Mostly I bought acrylic but I do remember springing for the brown, orange, and gold variegated wool once. Sometimes I walked out with nothing because the colors were so blah. Seen one brown, orange, and gold combo, seen 'em all.

   Needles were colored aluminum or plastic; straight or double point. No circulars. No wood or bamboo. I don't think cars even came in turbo.

   I bought 2 of the 6 large, thin paperback books they carried. One taught me how to knit; the other showed a couple hundred pattern stitches mostly beyond my skills.

   In '73 I went off to college. I never saw yarn for sale in Davis, a university town in California, the entire time I lived there.

   My first encounter with a calculator was fall of '73 in a class at Davis. It cost over twice what my parents gave me per month, but 75% less than it had 6 months before. We couldn't use them on tests.

    From the spot I sit right now in downtown Seattle there are 6 easily reached needlecraft stores I've visited and 3 or 4 I haven't. I go to drop-in circles and classes at several of them regularly.

   I own yarn made of mixtures of merino, cashmere, silk, alpaca, mohair, and even a little acrylic. No bamboo or soy has made its way to my stash yet, but it will. I have colors it never would have occurred to me to wear until I saw them and held them.

   I own so many circular needles I bought a large file box to store them. The first box I bought was too small to hold a third of them. Materials include bamboo, cherry, ebony, Teflon coated, and a very few metal. I knit loosely so metal is too slick. I only use circulars, though I didn't know they existed until I restarted knitting in 2000.

   My knitting books fill several shelves and a couple random piles near where I knit. My current reads include reprints of older books and knitting humor books released last week.

   I have a calculator in every project bag. My on-line friend in Holland (an American ex-pat) is trading blog addresses with me through an exercise video forum we both read.

   It's so not 1973 all over again. And Seattle's a great place to knit. 

   I'm making my second pair of socks (Mission Falls 1824 superwash merino) toe-up and head to a drop-in circle for help turning the heel in a few minutes. My first pair sat for 2 years with both heels already turned so I need a refresher.

   I'm also going to figure out my template for a top-down cardigan out of this Mountain Colors. It's 4/8s in Silverbow. I plan on crew neck, slightly fitted, picot hems and bands, and raglan sleeves with YO details at the increases.

    Note - This post was delayed by technical difficulties on my end. I'm home from my circles but will post more tomorrow on my projects.

A Brief history of Knitting

   The short-ish version of my knitting history starts about 1969. It was a crafty era and knitting was one of the crafts I tried. The only instructor/instruction I could find was a thin book from Sprouse-Ritz.

    My first project was a dark brown acrylic scarf in stockinette. Yes, it curled. I wore it anyway. It was a non-perfectionist era.

   I don't remember buying patterns, but all I made were scarves and drawstring bags finished with embroidery. I was big on making embroidered drawstring bags out of various textiles. Those I never used, but I liked to make them.

   Knitting ended in 1973 when I transferred to the University of California at Davis as a chem major the same year 4,000 students applied for 500 openings in med school. Chemistry was the weed-out class.

   I graduated in Economics. 1975 was an interesting time to study economics. Plus, I already had the math and the abstract thinking down.

   In 2000, after mulling it over for a year or two, I took a knitting class from a nice-looking yarn store half a mile from my house. The class didn't include finishing and the store didn't have drop-in circles. I didn't want to do scarves.

    So I picked an especially easy sweater out of this book and started in. Except the easy sweater body was 4 rectangles in 2 colors. The first one came out trapezoidal as I got used to knitting. The yarn I chose (not the one called for in the pattern) was a slubby, itchy tweed and hard to work with. I set it aside.

   The next summer I took another beginning course from Karen Alfke at Churchmouse Yarns and Teas on Bainbridge Island. I had a completed pair of felted slippers when the class was done. I was stoked. And hooked.

   I went to Karen's weekly circle regularly, including on September 11th. The group of us there that day still gets together occasionally.

   And I made the cover sweater from the Vogue book. But with a different yarn and I changed the neck. Karen makes the ideal teacher for me. We both prefer to do our own thing (Unpatterns) in our knitting and she shows me how to do that.

   I'd started to design completely from scratch just before my recent hiatus. I want to do more designing. A week ago I started a sketchbook and have 6 ideas drawn up so far. I haven't even done the ideas for the yarn I already have stashed.

   I'm not a fast knitter. At my present rate, I need never worry about running out of yarn or ideas. That's fine with me. I'm patient. And I'm a process knitter.

Happy Birthday to Me!

    Welcome to my new blog; my birthday present to me.

    Here's the requisite cat picture. That's Ocicats Winnie (short for Windwalker) and Talitha.

   My knitting took a time out for about a year and a half while I took some courses both for what I do and what I want to do. Mainly I learned whatever I do, it must include knitting.

   So, I jumped back in both feet first. Stashes and WIPs (lots of WIPs) have been sorted, papers filed (why does knitting generate so much paper?), and 2 1/2-year-old first socks finished.

   This blog continues the momentum from the two quarters of Nonfiction Writing I just finished. My instructor writes a blog - cancer not knitting, though she does knit - and encouraged me when I asked about blogging. I promise not to hold it against her when the photos won't post or trolls show up.

   These are the projects currently at the front of the queue. I'll talk more about them later.