Hugs For Your Head

Hot Stuff - a hat pattern for sale

2012-01-27T08:54:00.000-08:00

For the last year or so, Helena at Midnight Sheep and I have been cooking up what has become my go-to hat for cold days:

Yes, alongside the cute slipped-stitch stripes that hide each round's colour changes and give you a little lift over one eyebrow, those are mugs. With text. Three of the mugs are steaming, and the steam separates three magical cold-weather words:

Hot Chocolate

Coffee

Tea

(I usually wear mine with the word 'tea' out front, though I do love a good cup of hot chocolate as well.)

On top? A warm, radiating sun. Or melting marshmallow, or gooey dollop of whipped cream, depending on your perspective.

Whichever you like, this hat is all about the warm, and I can tell you it really is. Stranded DK weight Bluefaced Leicester? So warm.

And so fast to knit. I lost count of how many I made while I tested, but here's a clue: I stopped needing the charts. Never got bored of them, either. That's the thing about stranded knitting - it's so exciting to watch the next layer build up the image.

Obviously, this is a stranded hat and stranded knits are perfect for using up the remains of other projects you already have around the house.

But think about treating yourself to a kit in Huggable DK, the yarn Helena gave me to use. The Bluefaced Leicester is a dream to work with - so springy and cuddly and soft - and the colour combinations Helena came up are so cheery. While I worked out the pattern I knit it up in other yarns and the results were cute, but there is just no comparison to the way the Huggable DK ones feel either in progress or when wearing them later. (Yeah... that's plural. I kept two for personal use, I love this hat so much.)

In fact I am so convinced that you need to have this hat in Huggable form, I've asked Helena to include the pattern for free with her kits. You can buy just the pattern from me and use up stuff you already have if you prefer, but - Huggable, people. How do you resist that? (said the woman with three more kits waiting to be knit up.)

Hot Stuff
A charted pattern in three sizes, with some instruction for stranded knitting.

Difficulty Level:
Intermediate

Materials:

Midnight Sheep 'Huggable DK', (100% Bluefaced Leicester, 245 yards/100g): A - 44 (51, 58) yds, B - 75 (87, 99) yds, C - 15 (15, 17) yds
3.5mm (US 4) - 1 set of 5 double pointed needles, or size to obtain gauge
Stitch marker
Darning needle

Gauge:

23 sts, 28 rows = 4” in stocking st
(Please check gauge! If you do not knit with loose tension, you'll need to go up a needle size or two.)

Sizing:

Instructions are given for sizes Small, Medium, and Large. All are designed to be long enough to cover your ears; in the very elastic 'Huggable DK', Medium stretches to fit a 22” head, with a little room to spare.
S: 16.75" around, 7.5" long
M: 18" around, 7.5" long
L: 19.25" around. 7.75" long

Pattern Cost:
There are two options for Hot Stuff:
buy only the pattern from Hugs for $5.00 US
or buy a Hot Stuff kit from Midnight Sheep and get the pattern free.

Just want the pattern?

Motivational yarn

2012-01-26T04:50:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I worry I don't share enough photographs of yarn here at Hugs. (not.)

Well, after all - it's what motivates us, isn't it? That or the finished product or really great needles or a person you want something special for. But for me, mostly the yarn, since there's so much time spent touching it.

So just in case you needed to see some handspun in cakes today:

Man, the first and last of these really are painfully similar colours aren't they.

You've seen all these Christmas spins before in freshly-wound and I think skeined form too, but this is the final product - the stuff I can knit with just as soon as I clear out the last of my other obligations. It was such a relief on the weekend when I was finally able to get them off their hangers and into these cakes.

I'm giving this one pride of place:

This is Twisted Fiber Art club roving I ordered in an evolution of colour rather than self-striping. It was unlikely I'd be able to ply it such that it would in fact evolve from one shade to the next, but lookit! It worked!

What I'm going to do with it all: who knows? Except for the last one. The last one is getting knit up into a Crazy Cowl and will be the showpiece for the free pattern which I hope to release in the next couple of weeks after totally blowing it about having it out in time for Christmas knitting.

I mean, you guys need a Valentine's present, right?

We interrupt our regular procrastinating

2012-01-25T05:04:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I took a break from yarn-purchase-planning and pattern-polishing and sock knitting to finish a SuperSecret ScarfyThing I started back in November. Yay! and of course I can't show you the pictures (clue: 'supersecret'.) Instead I will show you something I finished earlier:

It's the manhat we discussed last week. Pete declined to model it for pictures but did agree to try it on and further agreed he did not look like an idjit in it. I then asked him if he wanted to keep it and he said, "I already have a hat."

???? Does not compute.

Anyway I'm pleased with how it came out and pleased too that I seem to have worked Turn A Square out of my system after five (FIVE??) editions. I may do more stripey hats in another pattern later though because I found so many great colour combinations in my stash while making this lot.

I really, really love how two-row striping looks in a rustic yarn. (I shouldn't say that out loud though. I might have to cast on another and I think you've all been longsuffering enough.)

Meanwhile: I need to procrastinate on things other than the pattern-polishing project. Helena and I have been cooking something up for at least a year, and it's so close to being ready to release you might even see it this week. Which you might care about because huzzah, it's not a stripey hat!

I am so doomed

2012-01-24T05:15:00.000-08:00

Three exciting but bad-for-stash-reduction things that happened yesterday:

I found out that I wasn't too late for the Stoddart Family Farm Wool Share (which will net me 4 skeins of the best winter sock yarn I know)

Twisted announced that all six colourways from the Twisted Fiber Art club are now available to club members for a week or two (like I'm not gonna get in on that. I know I haven't shown the colours here yet because I didn't want to spoil them for anybody, but WHOA.)

I marked the dates for the Knitter's Frolic on my calendar.

man, I have some serious knitting to do to make room for new yarn. wish me luck...

I can't believe I knit the whole thing

2012-01-23T05:20:00.000-08:00

I thought it was kinda crazy to think I could knit a pair of socks in a week, especially after not working on them for three days of said week, but look:

There was that one time I knit a whole sock in a day, but I used heavier weight yarn for it, and I had more time. I wasn't even sure I had cast on the right number of stitches for these ones.

I guess I did because they fit great. And they're long enough, for a change... I keep panicking that I won't have enough yarn and make them too short, but this time I figured I'd just do a contrasting toe if I had to, and ended up with about 7 grams of yarn left over for the toe of a less fortunate pair in the future.

Speaking of the yarn: it's a Romney/Mohair blend from Stoddart Family Farms, which may or may not still be available online. However, the farm usually has a booth at yarn events in Southern Ontario such as the Knitter's Frolic, so if you see them I can highly - and I mean highly - recommend all their woolly products (I've even tried the roving, which is heaven to spin.) I have not found warmer sock yarn, and the socks wear beautifully, as well as looking gorgeous, even inside out.

I have two more skeins of this yarn to knit up and I'm making them a priority because it's just so cold out now. There is really so much to be said for knitting out of season, so stuff is ready when you need it! There is also a lot to say for buying up a lot more of your favourite winter yarns, which I thought I did at the last Knitter's Frolic and obviously didn't. Not so much as to have bonus yarn for mittens, anyway - and can you imagine how awesome those would look?

Have a lovely warm Monday, folks!

Crazy cowl, continued

2012-01-20T04:49:00.000-08:00

I'm making a determined effort now with a pair of socks, but earlier in the week I digressed with my current Crazy Cowl. This is a pattern I've been working out for handspun yarn - even the learner kind that goes from superchunky to thread in alarmingly short order. Well, maybe not that huge an extreme, so maybe not true learner handspun, but close.

I say 'maybe' because this particular test run appears to be using thread-to-papertowelroll yarn:

(isn't it interesting how much longer the stripes get when the yarn gets thinner? like jagged mountains and gently sloping valleys. you can so tell I was learning how to spin all over again, this time with a wheel instead of a spindle.)

Based on my recollections on how the first one went though, I think the cowl could be okay in spite of the sudden shift in diameter.

How the first one went

In case I didn't mention it, the first one went to my neighbour Monique. Monique had been keeping up with me about how Les was doing when he was so ill last year - do you know (no you don't because I never mentioned it at the time), he went into the hospital this week a year ago? - and six months later, the morning he died, I sent her an e-mail to let her know because there was not much else I could be doing at 6am.

Well, around 10 Monique showed up at the door with cookies from my favourite bakery and a quiche so I wouldn't have to think about making lunch.

Around 2 she dropped by again with a fruit tray from her mom, and sat on the porch with me a while.

The next day, she invited me over for tea and just let me talk, and when the visitation finally began a few days later at the funeral home - more than an hour out of town incidentally - she showed up there too.

This all happened during the Tour de Fleece so I had been spinning every morning in the sun on the porch, and had not long finished for the day when we found out Les was really going to go. All the yarn from that time is full of all the feelings you can imagine, but that particular yarn, the one I knit up for Monique and was working on the day before Les died and afterward, is full of gratitude for her specifically.

Fortunately it was also spun a little further along in the Tour than the one shown above, and so it was a good deal more consistent. It even looks sort of normal.

In fact as it turns out it looks really cool, in any of the approximately 14 ways she figured out to wear it within the first five minutes of my giving it to her. It's so versatile, I am being optimistic and thinking the pattern's going to be all right for any handspun even if the end result takes on bizarre shaping like the current one.

The plan

I'll be releasing the Crazy Cowl as a free pattern as soon as I
a/ have photography and
b/decide what gauge and needle size to suggest as a standard.

The latter is tricky since: hello, handspun! It varies so much. But all that handspinning I did over Christmas and blocked over New Year's is dry and ready to wind into cakes and knit up, and it's all way, way more consistent than this. More even than Monique's was. So with luck... end of the month. Stay tuned.

And have a great weekend!

Doing things I shouldn't

2012-01-19T04:41:00.000-08:00

Of course as a chronic procrastinator I'm always doing things I shouldn't and/or not doing things I should (such a difference!) but this week, more so. And thanks to an apparent - and hopefully brief - personal energy shortage the Not doing things has outweighed any benefit of the Doing things, so the Shouldn't part is getting me into some trouble.

Stuff I shouldn't do but did

Letting myself run out, months ago, of 2.25mm needles, my standard for socks

Not immediately buying more 2.25mm needles even if it does mean a small fortune in shipping to get the wooden kind I like from KnitPicks

Not giving in to my love of square needle double-pointed sets - they are a little scary sharp for subway knitting and a bit up in the air for matching gauge to that of similarly sized round needles, but excellent in every other way - and just buying a 2.5mm set in it because I've turned out to be one of those people who needs to go up a size to compensate for the change in shape

Waiting till a few days before Christmas to suggest 2.5mm square dpns as a gift idea, at which point they were sold out locally

Losing a critical winter sock just as the temperatures dropped

Casting on replacements for the critical sock using 2.75mm square needles in desperation, and only 56 stitches' worth instead of the more comfy 64 on the assumption the increase in gauge would justify it without also meaning hopelessly loose fabric for a sock

Setting a mental goal (those are killers for me) of finishing the replacement pair in a week, then neglecting them for three days of it

Knitting this far on the first replacement before even bothering to make sure the gauge is okay:

... while thinking the whole time This Won't Work, I Should Rip This Out Now

Stuff I didn't expect to have the sense to do but did

Waiting to measure before ripping out

Turns out I got 7.5 stitches to an inch in the original socks, and I'm getting 7.25 stitches to an inch in these ones. Even the 56 vs. 64 stitch issue seems to be working out.

I'm pretty comfortable with this. I'm so glad I kept going.

Of course I still shouldn't be neglecting the two patterns I hoped to release this month, but you can't have everything!

The enigma that is ManHat

2012-01-18T04:37:00.000-08:00

I have this crazy unrealistic goal in life I call 'making a hat Pete would wear'. Sometimes I think he's picky, but usually I think I'm just not getting this whole ManHat thing right, because he really does look awful in everything I'm able to get him to try. I've even bought him hats and they've been a total disaster.

There are two exceptions, and they are a terrible red-orange acrylic toque he's had forever that is falling apart plus the crazy Jester hat I sewed him out of polar fleece one year when I had an assembly line and cranked those out for everybody on my list. I even sewed bells on all the points - they were ridiculous/cute. But also, worn. In fact Bob sent me a picture a few weeks ago of him out on a walk on Christmas Eve, wearing the one I'd sent him.

So obviously there is a solution to the ManHat problem and I'm missing it. I think I'm still missing it with the current Turn A Square effort:

I just don't care as much this time because I love so much how the grey and red work together. The inside of this one is even more ohhhhhh than in the other colour combinations, if you ask me

(but I'm sure you're not, as you must be thoroughly sick of seeing this same hat pattern over and over again.)

I've made a possibly lucky mistake on this one: somehow, I added in 10 extra stitches to the body, and thanks to the joy of stocking stitch I had no reason to notice until I got to the decreases and the numbers didn't work. Opting to consider the larger size a gift, I didn't rip back but simply reduced the 10, then worked a row and continued with the crown more or less as written, whistling casually all the way in case anybody was looking.

Why I think a larger hat might be an improvement:

In considering what makes those other two hats successful, I've noticed that they don't follow the shape of one's head - one even has a fold-up brim that adds bulk around the forehead and adjusts the scale nicely. Maybe a hat that hugs too tight and makes your head look tiny only works when you've got longer hair that shows a bit, for balance.

The other quality I've noticed about the fabric of those hats is that they're worked at a very fine gauge.

I wonder if I shouldn't try knitting a stocking cap from sock yarn, long enough to fold up at the brim?

Or maybe it would be smarter to drag Pete out to a store and make him try on a ton of hats to see what works for sure before I knit anything else?

Or maybe just give up and knit more socks?

(gotta say - that last one sounds pretty good right now. mmmmmm socks.)

Five reasons to join Twitter

2012-01-17T05:10:00.000-08:00

I tend to resist doing too much of the social media thing (said Mary, a longtime blogger and active Raveler - but hey, I quit Facebook!) because as technology speeds up I find I am more and more drawn to low-tech. See: exhibit A, spinning wheel, exhibit B, spindle, and so on.

However, I did bow to pressure from Karen last month and set up an account. And boy am I glad I did.

Five Reasons why Knitters should Twitter

1. You'll find out about deals.

I already knew about Soak - there's a bottle front and centre on my laundry shelf and if its contents get low I start to get shaky - and I even knew about what a nice gift it makes when paired with something handknit, but it never occurred to me that it would make a good Christmas present. Until Jacqueline tweeted a free shipping offer. At which point it occurred to me very strongly, such that I bought a ton of Soak things to give away. Yay!

Plus, if I hadn't done that, I wouldn't have found the one yarny present I myself received (by ordering it and then giving it to somebody else to wrap - somebody who also thought Zombie Barbeque was a perfect colour name: thank you, Lorna's Laces.)

p.s.: Heel is awesome foot cream, and the cucumber scent smells like Bermuda. Which is a good thing in case you're not sure what I mean by that.

2. You'll know when your favourite yarns are in stock.

I had to stop renewing my membership in the Knitterly Things Vesper Sock Club because I had (and still have) an insane amount of that exact sock base in my stash. I promised myself I wouldn't go back till I knit up the current stash, which is problematic because I am not also stopping myself from buying non-club skeins from the online shop. In fact if it wasn't that Julia's stock sells out entirely within hours of being posted, aka Before I Can Get There, I would be in Big Trouble.

Still, it's tricky to buy the scant remaining Vesper even with the aid of e-mail notices that the shop has been stocked. So I was thrilled recently to read a tweet from Julia to say she was about to stock the shop. How awesome is that? All I had to do was stalk the site and not even that very much, and I was able to score a skein of Rawhide.

We can discuss later whether I should be knitting this for a guy or not, bearing in mind that I wear a lot of black and really want this for myself.

(p.s., Twisted Fiber Art announces new colourways on Twitter before e-mail too. Q: how much do I love Shenanigans? A: a LOT. and there is no question of knitting it for a guy - or anyway, not my guy friends - so, Guilt Free.)

3. You'll get recipe ideas.

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee tweeted the other day that she had just made cauliflower soup by roasting the florets with garlic cloves in olive oil, salt, and pepper, than pureeing half of it and throwing the lot into stock...

... and I will be buying an immersion blender this week. I can't stop thinking about this soup.

(It occurred to me this morning that I would really enjoy having Stephanie Pearl-McPhee for a friend except that everybody I know who reads her blog including me gets into trouble because everything she talks about is something you feel immediately you must try also, and the next thing you know you're spending yarn money on an immersion blender. You know what I mean? I would need some sort of protective shield from the inspiration.)

4. You find out about cool craft techniques.

I can't even remember now who tweeted what about which site, but I do know that somebody's comment this week led me through a maze of links to discover a tutorial for an amazing couching tip. Seriously, I have hunted everywhere and can't find the link that was so eye-opening, but I can tell you the basics which are:

- write or trace or photocopy onto paper the letter you want to couch and cut away the excess, then pin it to what you want to embroider;

- swirl your yarn over the letter, then use couching stitch to fasten the key point in each curve;

- carefully tear away the paper;

- couch the rest of the letter.

And now I want to embroider some knitting... maybe the hat I'm working on, when it's finally done?

5. You will discover great websites.

People tweet all kinds of links they like, and I check them all out because you never know what you're going to find. Now I have to ask myself: how did I get by without the crafty goodness of Whipup, Craft Passion, or How About Orange?

I foresee a very productive year, even taking into account the loss of time I am now spending on reading my Twitter Feed. (which isn't much, frankly. there's so much gold in there it doesn't take long to mine enough to keep me happy.)

And that's five. Got any other good reasons?

(oh, and if you go and you're looking for me, the handle I ended up with was @marykeenanknits. apparently there are other Mary Keenans. a lot of us in fact, and some of them got around to Twitter first.)

His and hers hats

2012-01-16T05:10:00.000-08:00

It was such a splendid idea: matching hats for a him and a her, neighbours who have been especially good to me. I fiddled with the stitch count for Jared Flood's Turn A Square pattern, a crazy simple pattern that produces a sensible cap that even a hat-resistant man would wear, and combinations of my much-adored DK-weight Jacob/alpaca blend from Toots Leblanc, plus scraps of my red cashmere-blend Precieux from Biscotte et Cie.

I just don't seem to be able to get tired of the stripes you get with the slightly rustic Toots Leblanc yarn - especially when paired with the luxurious Precieux...

Even the insides are a bit melt-making, I think.

It took a really long time for me to get these wrapped because I kept taking pictures. I've knit four of these things now and it's not getting any easier to send them out the door! In the end I opted for a simple bow and put them into a brown paper lunch bag to take down the street.

The hats took about two days each, plus a day for drying, so: not a huge time investment, and SO nice to knit, I didn't even long too much to get working on the Replacement Socks (more on those tomorrow.)

But... oh, I have to face up to it. I don't think the His will ever see daylight on His head! No matter how warm and soft the fabric or how cold and bitter the day - some guys either can't pull off a hat or think they can't, and no amount of knitting will change the fact.

Still glad I made the hats though. And... I might be making another one now. ahem.

The power of stripes

2012-01-13T05:14:00.000-08:00

As I sit here wondering how my day is going to play out ...

(will the stripey his and hers hats fit Him and Her? will guilt overcome my aversion to cold and snowstorminess and send me out to buy urgently-needed laundry soap and milk? can I keep my hands off the next-size-up stripey hat I got the ribbing nearly done on yesterday... or will I spend my wildcard time gazing in fear and wonder at the new Bernina sewing machine that came through the door last night????)

(it's probably a No on the grocery run, by the way. and I suspect better people than I would say the same.)

... I am very conscious of the power of the stripes. I mean, if I can even debate knitting a hat pattern I've already done four times just so I can see how two colours look together in rows, versus trying out all the cool features of a real live contemporary sewing machine, stripes have to be pretty compelling.

So I think it's a good day to show you the stuff I made with the last of my self-striping/semisolid combo from Twisted Fiber Art.

Here are the socks with feet in them, and I must say they look a lot better that way then just flat and accordian'ed up on a table.

They feel pretty awesome too.

I think I mentioned that when I was finished these, plus the slippers I made from the semisolid, I had enough left over for a Calorimetry (ha! looked it up this time so I'd get the spelling right.)

I do love this effect. I started with the striping yarn, weighing as I went because there seemed to be so little left, and stopped at the meeting point of Not Quite Halfway and In The Middle Of The Most Contrasting Stripe.

Then I went to the semisolid, counting out carefully so I'd know when to switch back. Except that this pattern is so neatly designed, I ended up just knitting till I came back to where the stripey yarn was waiting for me - thank goodness I'd been too lazy to cut a tail when I switched colours.

Sock Pattern Info: made up - standardish sock, improvised ribbing.

Yarn Info: Twisted Fiber Art Yummy - wool/cashmere/nylon in a light worsted weight, in club colours Nymph (stripey) and Olive (coordinating semisolid) that may or may not come available in the future (I'll mention it here if they do!)

Remainders Info: yes. I still have some of this yarn left, enough to stripe a hat. H'mmmmm.

I hope you all have a delightful weekend, and I hope that I have more knitting to show you on Monday. You might have to settle for sewing, heh.

A rush project

2012-01-12T05:02:00.000-08:00

One of the things (well, two of the things if you're inclined to be picky) I really wanted to do for Christmas and ran out of time for was: knitting little gifts for a couple who have been super kind to me this year. They're always kind, but this year: exceptionally so.

Seeing as how 'She' asked about my Turn A Square hat, and 'He' is a guy who might actually wear a hat if the weather was cold enough, I thought a complementary pair of hats would be a good January present. As I type this it's raining outside, but you never know, we might get snow this winter.

This is what I'm working with, and I'm kind of wishing I had done a grey/red combo for him instead of brown/grey because I only just noticed his coat is black. I kinda think the bigger hurdle is whether the wool content of this yarn will be scratchy - though it's half alpaca and after it's been Soaked it's pretty amazing, everybody has their tolerance level - but I'm always preoccupied with the matchy factor.

Her coat is dark brown, and I think either of these hats would work for her. Also: I finished His last night and it felt a bit snug on me, pre-blocking. I hoped to gift them tomorrow evening if they're dry in time, but maybe I should aim for Sunday, and hope there's enough red (cashmere blend!) left over for one last try with a more relaxed tension? Assuming such a thing is possible, because my tension is crazy loose as it is.

Or maybe grey/red would be too girly. Thoughts? I will take silence as "Mary, you're crazy. Hand over the hats and get going on backup stocks for the half-pair on your desk."

(speaking of which, I cast on for those last night and this morning tried on the still-present sock to make sure I'd cast on the right number of stitches. It is SO perfect and SO soft and JUST the right length everywhere. But I am not crying because I still have faith the missing one will return through whatever black hole it departed. I mean, things don't really go splody when they get sucked through those things, do they?)

Woebegone Wednesday

2012-01-11T05:17:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm not entirely a sad girl today but I do have a Missing Sock update and that is,

it's still missing.

Even though I have checked, in addition to less likely places, every inch of the bed - bedding, pillows, and frame - on which it was last seen, and gone through the entire closet into which it might have been inadvertently dumped.

(Actually I took everything out of that closet and went through it all, Thing by Thing, and managed to offload a ton of it before vacuuming all the shelves and returning the much-pruned remains to their place. So I can guarantee that sock did not make its way into the closet either.)

I really think it must be on a road trip by now, or calling quietly for its mate from the depths of.... could it be under the carpet I wonder? Surely I'd notice.

Also, while we're talking about sad things: yesterday I wound all that new yarn into balls and my sore arm got more sore from cranking of the winder thingy. So add ball-winding to spinning on the list of things I need to not do till I'm better.

(Frankly I don't think this is possible. I will have to aim for moderation.)

In good news: I do have four sets of the same yarn I used for the missing sock, and as I discovered late last night the 2.75mm square needles that just came available from my needle stash seem to produce a pretty good fabric with it. So as soon as I finish off some hats I need to do this week - more on that tomorrow if the light is good enough for pictures today - I can get going on backup pairs.

I'm not giving up on that sock though. It's gotta be around somewhere, right?

A little trip to Stitch

2012-01-10T07:05:00.000-08:00

Over the holiday I wrangled a trip to Stitch, my favourite yarn shop - coincidentally located in Jordan Village, one of my favourite places in the Niagara Region.

(Fair warning: Stitch is located in a cute little house a few doors up and across the street from The Fibre Garden, for which I could not wrangle any extra time this visit. Fortunately they have a good online shop, but if you knit or spin or quilt or some combination thereof I can't think of a better place for a relaxing weekend away than Jordan, with its breathtaking views over the Escarpment and its adorable bed and breakfasts and yummy restaurants and so on.)

The main reason I like to go to Stitch is because I get to see Jocelyn, who has such a gift for making a welcoming, inspiring space. Even though I only ever get 30 minutes tops in there, I come away feeling like I've had a holiday. But also, Jocelyn stocks some pretty fantastic stuff - and she has a good-sized room set aside for fabrics to boot.

Here is a recap of what I picked up in less than half an hour.

Mary Goes Shopping

Jocelyn is the one who tipped me off about the fingerless gloves I made so many pairs of for Christmas, and the yarn she suggested for my original pair proved to be so useful for various presents during the Christmas KnitFrenzy I thought I should have more, but in this colourway that kinda leapt out at me.

That done, I had to pick up some French General fabrics. I've been obsessing about them since the last visit, and decided not to waste time agonizing about which designs to choose. I just went with my gut and picked these ones out of the wooden display box, while discussing with Jocelyn whether I have enough sewing years left in me to justify the investment a Bernina. (Jocelyn was smart and bought one a long time ago, but she thought I could still do it, and a couple of days later I did.)

While we went on chatting and strolling I spotted some cubbies of Madelinetosh yarns. I've been thinking about trying that for a while too and where better to buy some? I thought for some reason that these two colours would look well together, but I love them both individually too so if they don't, I will still enjoy them.

Then I had to ask about buttons, of the giant variety for the crazy cowls I still have to post the pattern for. Jocelyn helped me pick out these ones.

Finally, as she tallied up the bill, I spotted the Americo display, which has been the bane of my existence for a while. I fell in love with Jocelyn's selection of Americo alpaca yarns on my first visit to the shop's previous location - long ropes of heavyweight goodness hanging in the front passageway - but couldn't afford them. This time my eye fell on an inexpensive skein of 100% llama in a pretty green and I didn't think twice.

It wasn't till I got home and unpacked it all that I noticed something that may not be entirely evident from these pictures, or from the way they appear on your screen. But after those first two skeins of yarn asked me to take them home? every other thing I chose matched a colour they have in them.

And now if you'll excuse me, I have to get out my ball winder and swift!

A holiday in spinsville

2012-01-09T10:10:00.000-08:00

I think I mentioned I did a lot of spinning over the Christmas holiday, right? Starting with the pinky-rose stuff I showed a few days ago, and followed quickly by this:

That's pretty much in order from back to front, and goes a long way to explain why my right arm is so sore again today. I should have called the chiropractor's office last week to book an appointment for today, and I didn't, and now I am sorry. And at the same time: glad to have so much handspun waiting for the skein, Soak, dry stage.

The green at the back was from either a Blue-Faced Leicester or Polwarth sheep, I can't remember which. It was okay to spin, but it took aaaaggges because it was from a generous 6oz skein and I was feeling compulsive about not stopping in the middle of one batch of fiber. I think I did this in a day. (hello, reactivation of cookie-making-related elbow/forearm problem that didn't get entirely fixed before Christmas.)

The four colourful balls in the middle are the first installment of the Twisted Fiber Art club for this session. I ordered an 'evolution' this time instead of my usual self-striping option, which is why it seems to be four balls of unrelated yarn. When I get it all assembled, it will shift gradually into each new shade.

I did both of those with my wheel on the same tension I always use, and got bulky yarn like I always do. So I thought I might consider myself advanced enough now to try something different and gambled on some Fleece Artist blue-green merino I bought a while back and was afraid to touch. (Best not to discuss its similarity to the 6-oz batch I'd done already. oops.)

Ouch. I bought this because some previous Fleece Artist merino from a kit had been the most wonderful spinning experience, back when I was using a spindle. I don't know what was different this time: wheel? months of squashing in a crowded drawer? fate, laughing at me? whatever: it was agony to draft out. My arm got really sore doing this. On the upside, I am quite fond of the yarn I got. Maybe I can knit a sling?

After that experience I was faced with resting my arm or getting back into the saddle, and decided to turn to my trusty old undyed Polwarth from Ashford, of spinning wheel fame. Of all the spinning I've done, it's this which forms the most peaceful spinning experience I can get on tap. It's lustrous to look at and cozy to hug, it smells sweet even after washing and knitting and washing it again, and it seems to go on forever because I bought 300g of it for a grand total of $15 and have barely made it through the first 100g, even now.

Plus: it looks as fluffy as buttercream icing.

(which I had on top of a cupcake over the weekend, incidentally. it's been ages since I had the Real Thing. it is awesome. and superinsanely sweet. but fluffy!)

This fiber was definitely easier to draft out, even at the same tension as the blue-green Fleece Artist. After a while a friend sat down beside me and I made him squish the unspun fiber to see how amazing it was. He immediately became concerned I was ruining it by spinning it, because yarn is never as soft as this stuff is. So when I pulled this ball together I tracked it down and made him squish it. Ha! It's just as fabulous as it was before.

And now I have to go sew the button on a little present I'm giving later today. One down, two to go, of the presents I ran out of time to knit before Christmas. Go me!

Holiday: complete

2012-01-06T19:15:00.000-08:00

I was sort of on holiday this week (you may have noticed because of the totally sloppy, picture-less blog postings since Christmas) but on Monday, the daily grind starts up again and I really hoped to be ready for it. I'm not, and I'm not going to be, and I'm trying to accept that so I can just enjoy the next two days and not feel blech about it all.

One thing that is good: I decided around 2pm it is okay that even after a full week on the job the storage room is not going to be empty any time soon, and then sat down to work some more on the Calorimetry which I think I spelled wrong yesterday and possibly again today but am too tired to revisit. So, however it's spelled, it's done.

The amazing thing about that news is, I still have yarn left over after casting off. Two complementary skeins - essentially 230g of DK weight if my calculations are right - and I have a pair of socks for me, a pair of slippers for my aunt whose feet are not tiny, a headband for somebody else, and I still have enough left to do a few contrast stripes in a hat.

Isn't that crazy? Makes you think about how far your stash could really go if you actually used every scrap of it, but resist. Because then you might think things like maybe you shouldn't buy so much yarn till you've knit up what you have, and that way lies madness. Or at least sadness.

I didn't knit the Cali-thing with much zest, possibly because I've knit so much with those colours already now, but I've now cast on with equal lack of zest another Turn A Square hat for a New Year's gift. It's one of a his and hers set. Yes, I'm going to have to knit another after this, for a total of 4 in less than as many weeks.

After that: total free-for-all. And there might be some new yarn I didn't tell you about yet, too. After all, I have been on holiday!

Displacement

2012-01-05T19:22:00.000-08:00

I write this having come straight from the sofa where I cast on 120 stitches and knit about 10 of them. Whoo hoo! The end of five days without knitting. I almost never go even one day without knitting, so five days is weird enough, but weirder is that I had to make myself reach for yarn. What I really wanted to do was spin more fiber, and I knew if I started I'd be up till 2am because I don't seem to be able to stop now until I've spun a braid. Yarn seemed the more sensible choice.

What I cast on: a Caliometry. I am a little behind the trend on this one, but I wanted a headwarmer for a friend who seldom takes her long hair out of its ponytail, and it seemed the most practical choice.

What yarn: the same Twisted Fiber Art Yummy I used for my last project of 2011 - the socks - and incidentally for my aunt's slippers. Speaking of the socks, I did get one picture of them while they were still too wet to put onto feet for improved photogenic-ness.

What the socks look like:

Like that. Now tell me truly, if you didn't know better, wouldn't you have thought I'd generously knit these for some deserving man? I know better and I still thought so when I saw this shot. I should probably have been more considerate and not just made them greedily for myself.

(I will post more glam shots of them as soon as I think of it during sunlight, now that they're dry. Maybe then they will seem more girly and I will seem less selfish.)

Meanwhile, since I know you're dying to hear how the whole New Year's Tidy is coming along if only so I'll stop setting you to thoughts of expending similar energy (not something I recommend unless you too have to choose between this and moving to a bigger house), I have reached the stage of Displacement.

This is where you know what you're keeping, but you have to find another place to keep it, which means you have to go through the Stuff somewhere else and try to get rid of some of that. Specifically, this means I can't do any more till the Christmas tree is gone, which makes me feel Very Guilty because the tree is lovely and has been so generous and supportive and encouraging all through Christmas and now here I am plotting its exit.

In spite of the guilt, I am very aware of my personal carrot, which has become somewhat grander even than the sewing machine that may not be ready for pickup till next week now (sob!). Yes, I'm actually starting to think that a magazine-worthy home is within reach, complete with beautifully organized art and craft space. It's probably a sign that the crazy has well and truly set into my head, but it's motivating me to keep moving, so why complain?

Holding pattern

2012-01-04T19:32:00.000-08:00

Still no second sock, still looking, still keeping a stiff upper lip about it.

However, the massive housecleaning effort continues with some success. Today I focused on the kitchen, after having a big run through it yesterday when I should have been making supper, and shedding the worst of the clutter. As of today, I have a clear staging area for Stuff that comes into the house and also out of it, and an organizational centre in the front hall closet for things I might want to throw into my bag on any given outing (see: umbrellas, fresh hand sanitizer, water bottle, tissue packs, sunscreen, etc.)

Still to do:

Finish the storage room. I started that on Saturday which makes it a five day job so far and though I've lost count of how many bags and boxes I've kicked out the door there seems to be a long way to go. I gotta do it though. That particular clutter is like weeds - if you don't get all the roots and the clean up the flowerbed, just staying vigilant isn't ever going to be enough.

What I nearly took a picture of to show off here:

The stack of empty boxes that touched the ceiling, having been emptied of Stored Stuff that had then been redistributed mostly out the aforementioned door. Is that sad or what? I stopped myself from going to get the camera when I remembered nobody else is going to care about something like that. (notice how I made you sit through the description anyway?)

What I did take a picture of to show off here:

Not today as it happens, but yesterday, when it was unbeLIEVably cold out. Like whOA, what am I doing outside with a camera cold. Or perhaps, What price blog beauty cold.

You saw this yarn before, when I first spun it and it was still in tightly wound balls waiting to be skeined and Soaked and dried. This is it after all that part, waiting for me to wind it back into a ball, or into a cake if I can clear enough Stuff off the only counter my ball winder will clip onto.

The significance of this picture:

Spinning is the only creative pursuit I've had since New Year's Eve, unless you count tossing out stuff as creative (and after a few hours when the crazy sets in, I do.) Truly, I have not knit one stitch in 2012 so far.

On the upside, in addition to a much more organized house, I do have a whole little row of freshly-spun balls of yarn positioned across the top of a cupboard near the TV, out of reach of the Tidying Frenzy, just waiting to go through the whole skein-Soak-dry process. If the weather is a little warmer tomorrow and the storage room work goes well, maybe I will take a picture of them.

Have you seen this sock?

2012-01-03T06:30:00.000-08:00

GAH.

The other day I brought this sock and its mate (and many of their friends) up from the drying room and set it on my bed to put away. I nearly put them on... but they're my favourites on a cold day and since a colder one was due I thought I'd save them, so I put on a green pair instead and wandered off to start some tea.

Sometime between then and when I finally did go to put the socks away, the mate to this sock vanished.

(cue wistful music)

I've got the remaining sock on my desk, reminding me how I finished the pair for my birthday last year, willing me to keep looking. But I've even vacuumed all over and under every piece of furniture in the bedroom and there is no sign of it. I mean, HONESTLY. We all know that socks invariably go the way of dryer vent monsters, but handknit socks that get hung to dry and escorted back to a nice safe room? Shudder.

If you happen to notice a sock like this one hitching a ride through your town, let me know, wouldja?

Happy new year!

2012-01-02T19:02:00.000-08:00

Hope you are all off to a wonderful start to 2012, and I hope I am too. It's hard to tell from the depths of the basement where I'm clearing out approximately 10 years of stuff I've been hanging on to for no apparent reason.

(yes, you did read the same message from me last year. This time I'm trying to be so incredibly heartless in my throwing out/donating/redistributing that I won't have to get rid of stuff again till 2014.)

My motivation:

A new Bernina sewing machine, which should be ready for me to pick up by the end of the week - hence the urgency for clearing out all the stuff that is blocking the space where the machine is most likely to live. I might also describe this new development as Doom, because I'm pretty sure it's all the knitting that's kept me from noticing the house, and surely sewing is only going to make it worse.

(ps, I did finish the socks around 9pm New Year's Eve, so I have officially finished a knit for every week of 2011. Should I aspire to that again next year or stand back in horror?)

Dusting off the wool bits for a fresh new year

2011-12-31T06:28:00.000-08:00

Last year around this time I put my hands out onto two nebulous goals for 2011 and they were:

Learn to use my spinning wheel

Knit an Estonian shawl

I have spun some lovely things on that wheel, so - go me! Yes, I gave up on the Estonian shawl before June, but I don't feel bad about it because while I love the heritage behind those pieces I know I would not actually wear one. Also: I just didn't have the right yarn in my stash, and never fell in love with anything appropriate in my various travels. Maybe another year.

There is one last-minute goal that could replace it though... one that occurred to me thanks to the miracle of Ravelry's project pages.

Do you know, I have recorded 49 completed knits there for 2011? Counting the socks I started in December and finished a week into January, which I think is fair because there were so many knit things I started and had to put on hold just shy of finishing, including two me-sized sweaters.

49 things. Plus two more that I didn't record in Ravelry because they were samples for Interweave and Biscotte et Cie respectively and I can't find the pictures I took of them before I sent them off equals 51.

There are 52 weeks in a year, right?

And I have a second sock with just a foot and toe left to knit, at not quite nine-thirty in the morning on New Year's Eve.

Guess what I'm doing today instead of cleaning my desk for a fresh new start to 2012?

Next year's goal:

Make 30 gifts, at least 20 of them before June, so I have time to bake cookies early in December and just enjoy next Christmas! criminy, I'm still recovering from the catchup this year.

I might not knit all of those gifts, because an exciting new sewing machine is coming to my house before next weekend and it will definitely want to play this game. Assuming I can stop hopping and skipping around about it long enough to sit down and use it.

Hope your last day of 2011 is fabulous and that 2012 is much, much better than this one was. Crim.in.y!

Sock Talk

2011-12-30T06:05:00.000-08:00

I should do a regular installment on Sock Talk because I still don't have the concept down.

Here is what happened on Wednesday's road trip: I packed a sock in progress. It's a very nice sock in something between sport and DK weight, so... fast. Also soft, thanks to the merino nylon cashmere blend. Plus, nice colours. But it's got ribbing because I keep thinking socks have to cling.

The ribbing gets its own paragraph. After my last socks where I did a 2x2 ribbing, I went a little berskero so I mixed up the number of purls and knits to something like K2 P3 K1 P2 etc. It looks great, but it's impossible to follow so now I not only have to keep switching between knit and purl, I have to pay attention too. GAH. If I wanted to pay attention, I'd do cables or lace or something.

Note to self: mindless is only good while knitting, not designing.

Fortunately I'd got the sock on to the foot, so half of every round was plain knitting. Yay! I zipped along and well before it was time to come home I was onto the toe. Around about the third round of the toe I realized something was very wrong with the plan.

The Plan
Knit to the end of the toe, then cast on the next sock and knit it.

(insert the sound of a shoe dropping)

The Wrong
I on purpose left the tool bag at home, thinking I need to be More Relaxed. I do have scissors on the Swiss Army Knife that is my keychain, but I didn't have a darning needle for the running of scrap yarn, or extra needles to put the first sock onto so as to have enough free needles to start the second sock.

And it's such a pretty tool bag. But I only lost about 25 minutes of knitting, so - not a complete disaster.

Complete Disaster

The next day was baking day so I pretty much ignored the sock till I'd mixed three batches of cookie dough and baked two of them. Then I sat down and grafted the toe
without needing to look at instructions this time, thank you
between timers and ran in all the ends and then tried it on.

(other shoe dropping)

TOO SHORT. Not in the foot, where it would be easy to fix, but in the leg, where obviously the constant ribbing angst made me convince myself to start the heel too early. gaaaaaahhhhhh

And to add insult to injury, I wore a pair of plain knit socks yesterday that didn't bag or gape at all, having been washed a few times already. Ribbing: I am done with you.

(as soon as I am done the second sock.)

Patience is a virtue

2011-12-29T07:21:00.000-08:00

Today is a Very Busy Day full of me baking shortbread, owing to the fact that I really can't feel happy about not getting cookies out to all my neighbours over the Christmas break. I'm not even super happy about putting on a Happy New Year! tag in place of the Merry Christmas! one, so I will definitely have to adjust my planning for next year, but more on that later.

What I want to tell you over my tea and toast (my motto: multitasking is good unless it involves tea and/or toast falling into your keyboard) is that I FInally got something else done that was very important to me.

According to my records, it's almost exactly two months since I posted about sneaking off from more urgent matters to spin a tiny quantity of fiber bought at the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitter's Fair in September. And I'd actually done the spinning a couple of weeks before that. Well, Huzzah for me, because I've wanted to spin the rest ever since and I finally got to do it on Boxing Day:

That's six ounces of fiber, that is, and I spun five and plied it all in just one day, which is a record for me.

(or was until the day after Boxing Day, when I spun and plied all six ounces of the blue-green fiber I bought at the same time. I'll post pictures of that post-cookie fest. Assuming I still have daylight for pictures by then.)

Best of all: even after not spinning for so long, I still got all the fiber out looking pretty consistent for gauge, so I can probably making a Real Thing with it.

I wonder what?

Happy skippy jumpy

2011-12-28T04:19:00.000-08:00

Today I am supposed to be sensible and set aside the gnome-patterned flannel PJs that appeared as if by magic yesterday, and leave the house for various things, none of which involve

a/ a knitting store

b/ a sewing store in which to look longingly at Berninas (the one I will pass is closed today: definitely A Hint)

so I don't have much time for writing this morning. Instead I'm going to show you a picture of the laundry I carried up from the basement the other day, which was so delicious I had to grab the camera and take it outside:

This is only about half of my handknit sock supply - plus a pair of machine knit alpaca socks in grey - and yet it was a real snuggle-fest of an armful. It made me wonder why I keep thinking I don't have enough socks yet.

(answer: because I have so much sock yarn still waiting to be knit.)

Remiss and loving it

2011-12-27T10:21:00.000-08:00

Ahhh, the delights of the days following Christmas:

doing the laundry for virtue purposes, but not bothering to fold or put it away

ignoring any developing dust mammals

not turning on the dishwasher because I forgot it was there

washing dishes by hand only when the counter is too cluttered from stuff that couldn't fit into the dishwasher to assemble a new snack

making new snacks only when Christmas chocolates reach a saturation point in the ol' bloodstream

tea and/or milk on tap to accompany aforementioned chocolate

Oddly enough I didn't get anything knitting-related for Christmas except for a book from my cousin and some yarn I bought myself and gave to somebody else to wrap and label. I'd take that as A Hint except that surely my family would not be so crazy as to suggest I have enough yarn or needles or patterns or fiber or spinning accessories already. Sorry not to have a picture of the really lovely yarn: I was spinning new yarn during a brief period of sun yesterday. More remissness!

I have come away from the big day exhausted and happy - not only did I score a new pair of flannel PJs covered in a cupcake motif, some great books, and a ton of chocolate (the key ingredients to my perfect Boxing Day), the meal I cooked came out beautifully with practically no effort at all, and as far as I know people liked the various things I made them, even if I wasn't quite finished my aunt's slippers. They're done now though.

Here are some photographs of the last few things, taken in the ten minutes between finishing and wrapping:

the coffee cuff, which used up a hopefully tiny amount of the contrast colour from my Professor Slughorn sock kit...

the eighteenth pair of handwarmers (I'm exaggerating, sort of) to the cuff of which I added a tiny stripe of contrasting silk so I wouldn't go out of my mind over the sameness...

and the cowl that I had to entrirely reknit in the only stash yarn I had that was even close to the necessary weight. I don't love how it pooled, but I do love that it matched the purple alpaca blend I'd used everywhere else since it turns out the favourite colour of the girl who got this cowl is - yes, purple.

Purple was the big colour this season, did you notice it too?

While I was doing all that I was mostly thinking about last Christmas, when for some reason I had time to watch a lot of British programming and spin yarn. It was, in two words, REALLY NICE to be able to do that. I wanted to do it again. So now that the crazy has more or less receded, my wheel is parked near the TV and there are a lot of hand-dyed fluffs of wool on the floor around it.

Also me, steadfastly ignoring all the things I could be doing instead.

Hope you're doing all the things you want to be doing today too!

The twelfth day of knitting!!

2011-12-24T06:41:00.000-08:00

Well, here we are at day 12, ready or not!

Today's theme: jewelry.

Remember how berserko people went a couple of years ago for cheap bangles with beautiful knitted fabric stretched over them? Well, hang onto your hats. These knits are fast and - in my opinion - irresistible.

Treasure locket for Mom, courtesy the Purl bee (if you can crochet, you can do the matching ring)

Heartfelt Rings, courtesy tinyowlknits (you have to felt, but still: I bet there's time!)

Okay folks, this is it. Christmas is tomorrow, but it starts today for me - same every year now, aren't I lucky? - so I'm officially On Vacation. If I don't post here at dawn on Monday it will not be because I exploded from excess chocolate consumption but probably because I am sleeping off excess chocolate consumption. Don't worry about me till Tuesday, is the message here. And then forgive me if I trundle in around midday.

Meanwhile - even if you don't celebrate one of the many holidays that fall around this time of the year I hope you enjoy the more-or-less slower pace resulting from so many workplaces being closed for a break. (and if you do celebrate one or more of them, have a wonderful time with lots of fodder for future warm memories!)

hugs, and happy knitting to you,

Mary

The eleventh day of knitting

2011-12-23T04:48:00.000-08:00

Don't worry, I've got something for tomorrow's post that is so straightforward and simple even the most raveled (unraveled?) nerves can take it. Today I'm thinking tiny and fast, but assuming we all still have the fine motor skills to pull off a little ornament to put on the top of somebody's non-knit present. Which could at this point be a single bar of good chocolate. I mean, chocolate + cute ornament = bliss, right?

I'm more than a bit lucky because along with my December mailing from the Twisted Fiber Art club (gorgeous Bluefaced Leicester roving I can't show you till everybody else gets theirs) I got two patterns for tiny adorable ornaments. However, there are other patterns out there for similar ones, and I've sourced 'em.

Today's Tips

The first ornament pattern I found and loved is for these felted bells from the Purl bee (which site is a gift in itself by the way) but it involves a lot of extra steps like producing felted balls and so forth which you might not be able to face this late in the season.

Perhaps you will be more inclined to a mini sweater on its own hanger - Cheers! by Cheryl Niamath of Fetching Knits. A couple of hours sound good?

My heart melts for the tiny snowmen at Anna Hrachovec's Mochimochi Land...

But you could also make some acorns and really confuse your tree (pattern by Carmen Rigby.)

Meanwhile, back at the knitting ranch

I am just about to tie string around a parcel of the last knit gift for the season, if you don't count the slippers I'm now making for my aunt, and I'm trying not to so I'm free to say

YAYYYYYY!

It was pretty hairy the last few days and I've had to give up making cookies for the neighbourhood to pull it all off... something that might actually be causing me pain. It could be exhaustion doing that, but I think it's the loss of this particular tradition. I'm thinking I'll just be attentive and if it's still sad by December 27, I'll do a big cookie bake for New Year's.

As I always do, I am asking myself what I have learned. There are various things, and various responses to the things:

Stop caring so much. Sorry, I just do.

Maybe find faster patterns? I thought I did!

Then START EARLIER! I'll try, I promise.

I'm also going to try - really hard - not to care about Valentine's day, but when I made that resolution I immediately thought of a fast way to do a felted heart pin (machine-stitch the felted wool heart onto a rectangle of contrasting wool that felted firmly enough not to need any blanket stitching.) So I'm probably going to have another round of the crazy pretty soon.

For now though, can I just say whoa: is the scent of a balsam fir tree ever awesome to breathe in while knitting. I am totally putting up the tree before the crafting is done every year from now on.

Have a good day folks - see you tomorrow for two last-minute suggestions!

The tenth day of knitting

2011-12-22T05:23:00.000-08:00

First things first, so you can choose not to read my tale of woe:

Let's think pins and hair clips, shall we? Quick knits that really are quick, taking well under the four (or six, depending on how much ripping out is involved) hours required by, say, improvised coffee cuffs.

Of course the first that springs to mind is Ysolda Teague's hoot! pin, for the animal and/or Harry Potter lovers among your set.

But I also like Kittipin by Diane Trap. In fact it's just now occurring to me that if I have a spare hour today or tomorrow I should make one for a little girl down the street who has not one but two cats, one of whom lets her cart it around like a stuffed animal. (a very much loved and protected-from-pain stuffed animal.) It's quite adorable to see.

Tale of woe

I could not find the third colour I wanted for the coffee cuff I was making yesterday and lost an hour or more to ripping out and reknitting when even the second colour proved to be horribly wrong. GAH. Then, while blanket-stitching the edge of a handwarmer cut from a felted wool sweater, I realized the cut edge was not finishing properly at all and looked so terribly it would never be worn, ever. This about 11 hours, several of them destined to be spent in sleep, before they were to be given.

Happy ending

That thing I have about buying way too many zip- and drawstring-bags at tinyhappy meant I had an extra one I'd been saving, and could use in place of the Very Bad Handwarmers. WHEW.

and now to knit another pair of slippers. and wrap. and sew something for mum, and oh I hope, bake cookies for the neighbourhood. See you tomorrow!

The ninth day of knitting

2011-12-21T03:38:00.000-08:00

I stumbled across the sweetest blog the other day: Little Cotton Rabbits (that's the blog link, the etsy shop is here.) Inspiring R It.

But also, life-saving - potentially - because there are some seriously cute Christmassy patterns there which, though fiddly, are also small and well-instructed.

Check out the little bear ornaments for a giftee's tree.

And don't miss the mini stockings!

As for me - I got two of the four urgent knits finishing during a day long marathon of Irene Dunne movies on TCM. I think I must only really have known her for My Favorite Wife, the comedy with Cary Grant. Turns out she starred in a crazy number of melodramas in the early 30s in spite of being obviously very funny. So I'm feeling a bit melodramatic today but hoping to bear up under the strain and push through to success with the last few presents.

See you tomorrow...

The eighth day of knitting

2011-12-20T05:17:00.000-08:00

I did the math, and if I don't finish three different projects today and get them into a bowl of Soak and water to block, they will not be dry in time for gifting. GAH.

So: keeping this short, which is easy because today's recommended pattern is a dream of dreams.

It's a coffee cuff.

I know a lot of people knit coffee cuffs and pair them with a coffeeshop gift card, but I also know I have never, ever personally seen anybody actually use a coffee cuff outside of a very attractive staged photograph. This has made me slow to embrace the idea of knitting one, even though they are fast and you can go wild with stitches and use up small amounts of yarn.

As it happens though, this year there is a man on my list who buys a takeout coffee every day exactly two blocks from where he's going to drink it, and a gift card with a little sweater to keep hot the contents of his paper cup is the perfect gift. And now that I'm knitting one, I want to knit about 16, just because I now suspect the reason I've never seen one in use is that the poor people I see drinking takeout coffee don't have a knitter in their lives.

The pattern I'm using is Coffee Cup Six Ways, which is another free download from Ravelry that uses a simple series of ribbing and cables to look interesting while hugging cups of various sizes. Bonus: it's designed by Nicole Mattson via Prairie Yarns, a shop which last year used some of my chemo cap patterns along with a ton of others to do a massive chemo cap drive. I really want to get out to that shop but North Dakota is a bit far for me to drive to, heh.

And the reason I love Nicole's pattern? Folks, she's written it in fingering, so I can use leftover sock yarn to come up with my giftee's team colours. But she's also written it in DK and worsted weights, so I can whip up another for a giftee whose cowl turned out to be a massive failure when I cast it off yesterday (since she is not in her free time a re-enacter of dramatic moments in the Elizabethan court.)

Take care my friends. I hope that today is not your make-or-break day, and that if it is, it is a Make!

The seventh day of knitting

2011-12-19T03:38:00.000-08:00

Today's tip: an old friend, the Turkish Bed Sock from Churchmouse Yarns and Teas.

I know, this photograph wins the award for world's most bland colouring, Blog category. It was cloudy yesterday when I finally emerged from housecleaning mode*, what can I tell ya.

(These are not sandal-type slippers with a gap along the side of the heel - I just haven't sewn up those parts yet. It's quick, don't worry.)

There's nothing in that picture to give you scale, but the proportions should be a clue. The slipper is small. And you don't need to felt it, which saves you time/stress if you are on a deadline, as is common for we knitters at this point in the game.

It's small because the instep doesn't even come all the way up to the ankle, and it's small because it's recommended to be shorter than your foot in order to stay snug and not fall off. This is a paid pattern so I won't give away how much shorter. But in knitting terms, it's a not-insignificant amount of time savings over a full sock, and your recipient may can actually wear them as a sock in certain styles of shoe. So you look awesome and generous, and you can be fairly relaxed about it all.

Another time-saving tip: gift them to friends with unbelievably small feet. These ones are just 7.5" long from heel to toe and they fit Carol perfectly (I couldn't believe it myself so I made her try the first one on before I started the second.)

* I had to clean the house to make space for the Christmas tree, and I thought I might knit faster if I had that constant reminder of how imminent Christmas is. So far, so good.

The sixth day of knitting

2011-12-18T06:18:00.000-08:00

I think I might be off with the whole days of knitting thing. If today is the sixth, then the twelfth is Christmas Eve. I'm gonna have to source something SUPER fast to knit that day.

Today's suggestion is pretty fast. It's a cosy (or cozy, for my American friends) for your e-book reader - in this case a Kindle - compliments of Haramis Knits. At whose shop incidentally one might purchase knitted monsters mentioned in an earlier Christmas Knits episode, thereby speeding the whole process. In fact you can even buy knitted Kindle sleeves there.

I'm still out in the field about e-readers. I know people who really love them, and I do feel slight envy on a crowded subway car when I have to put away my dpns for safety and somebody else is casually perusing some fabulous novel. I have a tiny house with many, many bookshelves that are all already full, so it would make sense to go paperless. In fact, somebody actually wanted to give me one for Christmas to avoid the whole More Yarn?? question. (like there's any call for that.)

But I played with one in a local bookstore and it was just... No. Not so much.

If I did get one though, it would be a Kindle, and I would definitely knit a cover for it. If I hadn't promised myself to clean the house today and put up a tree. See you tomorrow, hopefully with pictures!

The fifth day of knitting

2011-12-17T04:37:00.000-08:00

Today I'm going to share one of the patterns I have most wanted to knit: Holly, Ivy, and Steve, the Christmas Hooligans. You'll have to click through the link to see how adorable they are.

Technically these are tree ornaments, knit with sock yarn of which I certainly have a great deal. But I think they might be fiddly for a bus, or take a bit longer than some of my other suggestions, so I'm pitching them on a Saturday for weekend work.

That's assuming your Saturdays are home-based. Mine are all over the map! Time to pack up my bag for the duration - see you tomorrow with another yummy pattern idea.

The fourth day of knitting

2011-12-16T04:43:00.000-08:00

You've seen today's quick-knit Christmas Chaos suggestion before:

Yep, I'm knitting another Candle Flame Cowl, by Julia Allen.

(this one is a free Ravelry download, which means there's no other way to get it but from there. I'll try not to include these potentially less-accessible patterns for the rest of the 12 days but honestly: it's just such a great project, I couldn't leave it out.)

The purpose of the poorly-lit photograph above is to illustrate what it looked like at bedtime of the day I cast it on over a lunch break. I got it up into the pattern repeat so I could move forward on autopilot, then put it away till I got on the bus. I got it out again for a meeting in the evening, where I made a few mistakes when things got interesting, and had to rip back. Then I sat down in front of the TV for a documentary on Beethoven's final years and knit some more.

All told: a little over 3 hours of knitting time, and I'm half a repeat plus a border away from completion. Not bad for a gorgeous handknit gift in wool and mohair!

Of course this assumes that the tiny amount of yarn left from my stash is going to get me through the half repeat (it won't. I'll have to bind off early and hope there's enough for that much. think I can do the remains in hot pink? no?)

Look for me here again tomorrow and Sunday - I did promise 12 days of Christmas Knitting patterns, you know. And also you'll get to find out early whether I was able to finish this cowl or not. What a bargain!

The third day of knitting

2011-12-15T04:44:00.000-08:00

I think we've established quite firmly that I am a hat person, but today I am going to recommend picking up a copy of Interweave Accessories 2011 (or buying the digital copy) so you can knit up a bunch of these cute headbands:

It's the Dryad Headband by Katya Frankel, and I could not wait for my contributor copy of the magazine to arrive so I could make one for Hannah. It's got lots to keep you interested on the very short ride to completion including a clever increase technique that was new to me. Plus, check out how it's hugging the side of my head there! So snug.

If you go inside and want to get it off your head without losing it, you can just pull it down. It will be mistaken for a pretty little cowl.

I stacked two buttons because the one that matched the headband was too small for the loop, and the one that fit the loop was so much the wrong colour. Another one of those very happy accidents that life sometimes hands you.

The sides of the headband are made up of angled stitches.

So pretty! Also: confusing to the knitter who is counting rows. I used a safety pin to keep track of where I was.

I made this headband over two choppy evenings but I'm pretty sure you could do it in one, if you weren't interrupted by phone calls or needing to wash up a lot of pots after supper.

The second day of knitting

2011-12-14T05:13:00.000-08:00

Today's quick-knit pattern recommendation: Churchmouse Yarns' Welted Fingerless Gloves. I've just finished my second pair and they are so easy, to such great effect. Also: adaptable. I did the first pair with all the recommended welts at the wrist and decided it works best that way for somebody with a very slim wristwatch.

I knit the second pair with just one welt, and I didn't use the pattern's suggested smaller needle for even that one; then I added one more repeat to the thumb gusset and got the length I wanted without the snugness such that even my big clunky watch fits underneath.

Well, it would if I had it on. I'm asking Santa for a new watch this year because the clunky isn't doing it for me any more, even if it did have the appeal of coming to me free with the purchase of running shoes.

You're in safe hands with any Churchmouse pattern but these gloves are certainly quick - maybe two evenings' work - and I'm going to get two single-welt pairs out of one 100g ball of Berroco Ultra Alpaca (you need three balls of Manos de Uruguay Silk Blend for two pairs, if you want exactly what the pattern shows.)

The thumb bindoff can be a bit tricky to get consistent between the two gloves, not least because you really need to knit the last row before said bindoff a little loosely, but the thumb itself if so comfortable, it's worth the care.

My purple pair is for Hannah, and I'm giving them to her tonight along with another little item that still needs some finishing... so off I go. See you tomorrow with the third day of Christmas panic knitting!

12 knitting days left

2011-12-13T05:22:00.000-08:00

Assuming you don't plan to knit a gift actually on Christmas Day - for example, in the car on the way to your parents' place for supper* - there are twelve days left in which to knit gifts. So as a public service, and not at all because I am still scrambling myself, I thought I'd do a string of quick-knit suggestions for handmade gifts. Sort of a 12 Days of Christmas thing.

So: Day one. How adorable is this Sweetie Pie hat from Purlbee? Thank you Jen!

And speaking of hats, I know you want to see what a hardworking hat looks like in a Toronto winter:

Yep, that's my Turn A Square after a walk and errands on a very cold morning - the one I'm keeping to match my almost-visible blue-grey coat there. When you're piled up with layers this is what you get - utilitarian headgear and a supercrushed hairdo. It's warm as can be but I think I should have blocked it before putting it on the first time; it's pretty scratchy, unlike the one I'm giving away, which I did take time to soak in Soak.

Speaking of which - here's another 12 Days tip for you. Soak is offering free shipping until December 14th. Couldn't do without that stuff! and in fact I need to order more myself because I'm on my last bottle.

Back to the hat. Technically the big bonus of this project is the learning of jogless stripes, but check out how they look when you're using a variegated yarn for the contrast:

You can definitely see the start of the round, but it's a design feature now. Love it.

And now back to my Christmas knitting.

* I have never done this. Christmas Day is for eating chocolate and reading a book, not being selfless!

Those crazy cowls

2011-12-12T05:07:00.000-08:00

There's a lot of the crazy around my place right now, go figure

(I'm looking at you, Christmas knitting amid crazy Christmas schedule)

but the craziest of all is the cowls I've been making from handspun. It's in the way they look, the size of needles I'm using to make them, the shocking variance of yarn size along any given yard, and the fact that I'm knitting them when they aren't destined for any particular person and other projects are SO overdue.

Here is the mostly finished one:

and here is the one that isn't terribly finished at all:

The mostly finished one has ends to run in, and they didn't stay when I tried doing that with my fingers. I mean really, who has a darning needle as big as you need for this superbulky handspun? Or buttons large enough for those giant buttonholes?

Not me. Here is some gear I picked up at the fabric store on the weekend:

That was an ordeal in itself, what with the fabric store I count on having closed its most local location after 30 or so years. I mean REALLY, don't they know I need them, especially in December?

The upshot is, I love these cowls. I think I need to whip up the pattern for how I'm making them because I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person with bulky stash yarn just begging to be under somebody's tree this Christmas in some useful form. If you're another such person, you might want to start looking for pairs of 1.5"-ish buttons. Just sayin'!

The alpaca sock experiment

2011-12-09T07:28:00.000-08:00

Finishing off the alpaca socks didn't take quite as long as making them, but it felt like it - have you noticed that with your most longed-for knits?

I spent an entire evening doing Kitchener stitch and running in ends, though I suspect it would have taken less time if I hadn't been watching a movie starring a youthful Rossano Brazzi at the time. So distracting, that man.

And then, being heavy alpaca, they took a couple of days to dry, even in the warm room where most of the radiator pipes live.

I decided to run the ribbing straight down the leg because I just don't love looking down at a baggy sock, and plain socks invariably do bag on me. By the ankle I remembered (and how!) that I also don't love knitting endless rounds of ribbing, but when I tried to do a plain foot I found the transition to stocking stitch was super lumpy and awkward looking so I went on as I'd started.

I am trying to remember that there is knitting an item and there is wearing it, and if you're lucky the wearing part will last the longest and be worth any effort beforehand.

Of course this is a pure experiment, the alpaca socks. The yarn is from Meadowview Alpaca Farm and, though the blend seem to be different there now mine are a mix of alpaca with 15% or maybe 20% nylon for strength. I've done the heels and toes in strong-but-soft wool (Duchess from Twisted Fiber Art) for added endurance, but I will confess I trembled when I took them off after their first blissful-for-me day of being essentially felted inside my boots:

There's some fluff that suggested wear, until I noticed the same thing on some merino/mohair socks I've been wearing for a year without ill effect.

The other thing I wanted to mention about these socks is the actual ribbing, which was for the first sock K2, P2 all the way round. Worked beautifully till I got past the heel and realized that the front half was not symmetrical with the back, but heavier on the knit on one side than the other. I got around this problem by making the second sock P2, K2 all the way round. Now, whichever one I put on my right foot, they balance out.

Makes me kinda glad for the needle shortage that has me knitting just one sock at a time, instead of alternating between parts of the pair.

Have a good weekend! I'll see you Monday, hopefully with lots of finished Christmas knits in hand.

Technical difficulties, finished objects

2011-12-08T06:39:00.000-08:00

Owing to the walking issues that have me back at the chiropractor's office two or three times a week (am I the only one who thinks I'm a few decades too young for this?) I'm getting in lots of surprise bonuses these days.

Such as:

knitting time while waiting in the waiting room, then waiting in the treatment room

knitting accountability because I am just competitive enough to want to have a different answer for my chiropractor every time, when he asks what I'm making

knitting support for repetitive stress injury.

It's so great to have a chiropractor for a neighbour who is also a friend, because it makes him totally biased about the whole disfunctional leg/arm thing: I bake my mum's famous chocolate chip meringues for his family every Christmas and he knows if I can't stand for two hours and/or use my right arm I'm not gonna be able to deliver this year.

You probably have to have one to appreciate how horrific this would be, but try to take my word for it. Or just whip up a batch because the recipe is at the link.

Amazingly it's not speed knitting that has put my right arm out of commission, but cookie baking for a fundraising bake sale. I used one of those cookie dough scoopy-squeezy tools that ensure all the cookies you bake are the same size, and after a day of making about 20 dozen cookies that involved three or four squeezy motions each I could barely move my arm around at all. So it's lucky I have these constant appointments, yes?

Best of all, my chiropractor's sister-in-law is a knitter, so he doesn't even bother suggesting I take a break from my needles to let my arm heal already.

Which is how I finished the guy hat I want to keep:

I mean honestly, could you give this away? (yes, if you knit yourself another as soon as possible, which I did, and will show you if we get a break in the rain long enough for pictures.)

I love the squares on top.

I also finished the Candle Flame Cowl...

... which is surprisingly hard to photograph when knit in dark purple, but at least you get an idea how long it is and how it doesn't gape or sag, qualities I value highly in a neckwarmer, what with living in a cold place in winter and all. I pulled it down a bit for the picture but it is nothing short of adorable how the scalloped border hugs the cold edges of one's exposed jawline when allowed to do so.

This is better, yes? It's very pretty and I can see how it would be a good gift for more people in spite of the current trend for hugely oversized cowls that either expose your neck entirely or brace it like there's been a terrible ski accident in your vicinity. So: I'm going to knit another.

But not yet! because there are more urgent Christmas knits, so urgent I can't even stop to tell you about them today. Meanwhile: knit well, and I'll see you tomorrow.

Sleepless - a free pattern

2011-12-07T13:25:00.000-08:00

My posting schedule is all off this week, but tomorrow I'll be back to my normal circa-dawn writing session. Today: you are getting a late afternoon alert to say that the latest Knitty is out.

And I am in it.

Or rather, a hat I made is in it.

And I guess also me, because I modeled it.

The Knitty writeup gives you pretty much everything you need to know about this hat (charts, written pattern, under 50g of sportweight yarn etc.) except the backstory, which I will share here.

Spoiler alert: you may need tissues.

(don't worry if you haven't dropped by here before: this is an atypical post, so you're perfectly safe and even welcome! to come back again.)

If you've been reading Hugs for a long time, you will remember there was a death in my family over the summer. Les was over 80 and had had a good - well, great really - life, but his last six months could serve as the dictionary definition of heartbreaking and were spent entirely in hospital. I can tell you right now you never want to see anybody go through what he did, even if you don't love that person, and everybody loved Les a lot.

For most of the six months I kept thinking It's okay! They can fix this! and then there would be another thing and I'd think They can totally fix that too! and then the first thing would go back wrong and - you get the picture. One night in July I woke up around 3:00 AM and realized:

Les is going to die.

Immediately I went into a couple of insomnia-like hours of FixIt mode and tried to figure out what doctor to talk to, what treatment might help, what anybody could possibly do to keep that from happening. And - so weird - at the very same time my mind was building up a hat with stitches that traced every one of the steps I was taking in that go-nowhere circle back to accepting the fact that we were going to lose him.

Now, I realize this is a pretty depressing source of creative inspiration and a not-compelling reason to knit Sleepless, but from the start, I have felt very strongly that this hat was a gift from Les. (Hard not to find that feeling reinforced when it was accepted to Knitty, no less. Who gets a hat pattern into Knitty for heaven's sake? Better designers than I, surely.)

I've spent months trying to figure out the meaning of that conviction and a few days ago it finally came to me:

Even in the midst of the worst things you can possibly imagine, there is beauty to be found. It can coexist with anything. And whether you seek it out consciously or just open your eyes to it when it's in front of you, it's a great comfort.

And I do think this is a beautiful hat.

(also: a lovely shovel. Les gave me that too.)

PuddleJumper Socks - a pattern for sale

2011-12-06T18:19:00.000-08:00

For a lot of last year and a good deal more of this one I've obsessed about the perfect socks - aka the socks for which I could:
memorize the pattern
not need a stitch marker
be able to stop at any of four different needles when called upon on walk off a subway car or down the stairs of a bus without losing my place, and
not go crazy from not being able to see obvious signs of progress
(because it takes me two months to find time to finish the average pair of socks.)

Oh! and I didn't want the actual sock to be saggy at the back of my ankle. I don't know why I should care about that but I do.

I really wanted to know where to mark the leg and foot so I wouldn't mess up with one sock being longer in either of those areas than the other, which kept happening to me.

I really, really wanted to have all the information I needed for all of the sock on a tidy, compact piece of paper (or series of same) that I could slip into my bag and cart around for all occasions.

And as the proud owner of a ridiculous amount of self-striping sock yarn, I especially wanted the pattern to do something cool with stripes.

Now, there are a lot of great patterns out there for stripey socks, but none of them quite met all of my needs. Figuring out my dream stitch took a couple of months, and I got so used to ripping out my efforts and starting over that I nearly did the same with this one until I realized that the funny wave I got after one repeat of the lace pattern turned into a super fun asset after three of them. I'm so glad I kept going.

Don't they look just like kids' rainboots, even inside actual boots? Like the kind with the handles to pull them up by, I mean.

I love these socks. I feel so cheery every time I wear them, even on gloomy rainy days - and with rain in the spring and the fall, who doesn't want that?

PuddleJumper Socks

Included:
Both written pattern and charts
Full directions plus a cheatsheet to cut out and carry in your bag
Tips (with photographs) on how to minimize holes while picking up gusset stitches
Step-by-step Kitchener stitch instructions for grafting toes shut

Difficulty Level:
Intermediate

Materials:

Knitterly Things’ Vesper Sock (100% superwash merino, 428 yds/100g), 1 skein sufficient for most foot sizes
(if you have both a long and wide foot, consider adding a contrast colour for ribbing, heel flap/turn, and toe)
2.25mm set of 5 double pointed needles, or size to obtain gauge
safety pins to mark rows, if desired
darning needle

Gauge:

34 sts, 46 rows = 4” in stocking st
38 sts, 46 rows = 4” in pattern st

Sizing:

Instructions are given for adult sizes Medium and Large, the larger in brackets.
Foot: 7.5 (8.5)” circumference
(Medium stretches to fit comfortably on 8” foot)
Length: 8.5” from heel base to cuff centre back

Pattern Cost:
$5.00 US

One for you, two for me

2011-12-06T03:35:00.000-08:00

I feel like I'm doling out candy in an uneven me-centric way but... yeah. I'm knitting for myself again!

Oh, I couldn't stand it. I finished off some Christmas knits and blocked them and found myself with a ten-second window of indecision what to cast on next. You know that's always doom.

The thing is: that hat I was knitting as a gift may or may not look good on the guy it's meant for, but it looks super awesomely slouchy on me. Also: the fabric of it is amaaaazing. (You should get some of this stuff if you can afford $20 for a pretty generous skein - it's Toots LeBlanc's Jacob/Alpaca DK yarn. I suspect I'll be buying more myself.)

Yes, the spin is a little uneven in places and yes, I am picking out hay as I go. I never mind that anyway but especially not here because my goodness, the fabric. It's not just soft, it's buttery in a way you don't mind putting on your head. And warm? wowza. I used this same stuff at the same gauge for my Eloquence mitts and gloves but in a hat it's a revelation.

So you can see how I had to have one for myself if I was going to be able to give away the first one.

This time instead of striping with the same yarn, because I'm hoping to squeeze another hat out of my reserves, I'm striping with the silk/wool blend that matches my problematic blue-grey coat. No mean feat when you figure the base yarn I'm using is a very dark brown, but it's looking pretty fabulous in person.

(Not that you can tell from this picture because it's been so dark outside since I started and the flash insisted on going off every time I took a picture.)

I will admit the silk insertions are not as satisfying as the original with its consistent flow of wool and alpaca, but it will match my coat and I will try to focus on that. And I'm going to finish it and get it out of my system today because I just have to get back to the gift knitting, and also because the weather is freezing again. Brrr!

Clown car knitting

2011-12-05T05:18:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend I finally got around to casting on one of the yarns I handspun last July, during the Tour de Fleece. It's not quite as uneven as my early handspun which I felt made it viable for something, but it's uneven enough not to use for a hat or anything else that should fit... or, you know. Have a recognizable shape.

It's so bulky I knew I couldn't do an actual scarf, so I decided to start with the narrowest strip I could justify and knit as much yarn as I had, then stitch it into a round and call it a cowl or, worst case, a neckwarmer:

I'm using the biggest, shortest straight needles I happened to have - 7mm, because I felt the really oversized ones would be pushing it - and making giant holes to stretch the yarn as far as it'll go:

Kind of pretty, do you think?

It's got a lot of depth and shadow anyway, with such bulky yarn. I just feel like I could be knitting this in the middle of a clown act, with bright red needles so much bigger than what I'm used to these days.

Turning a square

2011-12-02T05:12:00.000-08:00

I have to pat myself on the back for forging ahead with my gift knitting in spite of being so scatty about it. Well, I have to, but I can't, because the forging ahead is keeping my hands occupied.

Just not on one pair of needles at a time.

For example: the other day I got super close to finishing the Candle Flame Cowl, but then I put it aside and started a Turn A Square hat by Jared Flood. I've always been intrigued by the simplicity of this design and the promise of jogless stripes (you know, where it's not brutally obvious where you started a new round every time you change colours) and it's nice to finally be able to give it a go.

Of course, nothing is simple: the yarn I wanted to use is totally the wrong weight, so I had to recalculate gauge and cast on an entirely different number of stitches and guess at how far to go before starting the crown decreases. Also, the needles for the ribbing were currently in a certain pair of socks I shouldn't have started.

I got the needles out and did the band and got the hat about this far:

at which point I got tired of knitting it. I should have put the now-finished sock needles to work casting on a pair of gift slippers but somehow they wandered back into the socks and went through another round, sigh.

Meanwhile that cowl was still sitting there with about an hour of knitting left in it. What gives?

The next day I got a little farther in the hat:

after getting the cowl almost through its castoff. Almost = right to the last stitch where you cut the yarn and pull through. Seriously. I put the cowl down rather than snip yarn and pull it through, to go back to a hat. I don't get it!

On the upside, the hat goes a lot faster than you think it will, even with small yarn. And the stripes are looking nice. I'll show you more pictures with all the gory yarn and adaptation details next week - but in the meantime, have a delightful and productive weekend. See you!

Have baby yarn, will knit - eventually

2011-12-01T05:07:00.000-08:00

Last week I bought yarn for the baby-sized Milo vest I want to make for my friends' soon-to-be new little boy:

It has a lot of acrylic in it because neither the mum nor dad knit, and I don't think they're going to want to fuss with a lot of handwashing when there is a cute new baby to cuddle (and feed and change at all hours of the day and night.)

While I was at the store I also bought some needles:

I know I said I probably wouldn't buy square needles again after I tried the 2.25mm ones for my usual fingering-weight socks, but I haven't been able to source more of my favourite wood ones locally and the square ones do feel pretty amazing in your hands. This time I bought a 2.75mm set because I've been knitting DK-weight socks on 2.5mm needles and, with the rounded edges squared off, I found I should have gone up a size before.

They might have already found their way into another pair of socks.

Sigh.

The aforementioned baby was due in January, but it seems he may arrive at any time now so my plan of After Christmas! is possibly not as ideal as it was. I was making a bigger size anyway but... well. Since I seem to be putting off all the Christmas knits anyway, maybe I should start soon?

Copenhagen Hat

2011-11-30T05:09:00.000-08:00

Whew! It's always such a relief when I can finally show and tell the secret stuff I've been working on, in this case from last spring.

Interweave very kindly accepted this idea for the 2011 Accessories issue, which I must say looks amazing - check out the preview, or if you're a Raveler, the Ravelry page! I just love the handwarmers on the cover, and there's a cool headband pattern that must knit up in a couple of hours (aka, perfect project for those of us who are gift-challenged at the moment.) There are more pictures of my hat here.

I knit this hat so many times on the bus to and from visits with my mum. First it was too wide, then it was less too wide, and the whole time it was insanely convenient to work away at even while walking between connections.

I played with the buttonholes forever and came up with a technique that produces an unambigous opening your button can't miss - and then we had to figure out how to describe it so it sounds just as fuss-free as it really is.

And all that knit and purl - well, I rigged it in the part that's worked flat so it's as much knit as can be, because I'm nice (read: lazy). Bonus moment: it just folds itself in at the back instead of pushing itself off your head when you turn or raise your shoulders.

The point of the idea, for me, was to have working buttons that let you play with how low it goes over your eyes or ear by slipping a hole over a higher button, or leaving some undone.

But once it was done I loved even more how it just plops down over your head like a blanket and doesn't muss your hair.

And really: Rowan Felted Tweed? it produces the yummiest, supple fabric for not a lot of money, which is hard not to get excited about - especially when you only need one skein.

(which is how much I have stashed, in grey... should I make another of these so I have two?)

Christmas, imminent; Me, unready

2011-11-29T05:23:00.000-08:00

The Christmas knit plan is kinda killing me this year. I have yarn, I have needles galore, I have 15 people who rate a handknit something - heck, I even have time to knit, but I have barely started. It's all well and good to say that these three people will get cowls and those four will get handwarmers and the other two will get hats, but what colour? and also, what pattern?

Not helping: the discovery that Hannah is not the only person on the list who is favouring purple this year, of a shade not compatible with most of my stash of so-called neutrals.

Still, quiet progress has been happening in my subconscious. Just this morning I realized that the new Berroco Ultra Alpaca is the right weight after all for my aunt's Turkish Bed Socks, thanks to my ridiculous gauge issues. Of course in the meantime I'd finally found the perfect cowl pattern for Cowl Giftee #1:

Isn't it pretty? Also: crazy fast and easy to memorize. Which is nice because, knit on circulars like this, it makes perfect travel knitting. I've always loved this candle-flame stitch pattern and never had the time to try it, so that's a double bonus: it's going to a singer and I just think that makes it more meaningful given all the pictures of Christmas carolers singing by candlelight. If you're interested in making one too it's the Candle Flame Cowl by the generous genius Julia Allen - the link is to a free Ravelry download and I think you don't have to be a member to access it. Fingers crosssed (though if you're not a member, it's so worth joining.)

I should state the obvious here - this particular yarn is the perfect shade to match everybody's purple-isms. And I only bought two skeins, which means I will be lucky if there is enough left after the cowl and the bed socks to use for accents in the remaining projects whatever they might prove to be. Maybe I should go back to the yarn store?

Please knit now

2011-11-28T07:53:00.000-08:00

Check out this WWII postcard my cousin sent me from England:

It says, 'Our Jungle Fighters Want Socks' and 'For information, patterns and wool contact...'

Okay, so I would feel a lot better if I were actually knitting for soldiers but the postcard did make me feel a little better about working on socks instead of Christmas presents.

Sorry about the painful-looking bend on that one foot. I just really wanted to show off the toe.

As you can see I've gotten rather a long way with these alpaca lovelies. And the heels come pretty close to matching up in spite of my not having tried too hard to start at the same point in the contrasting yarn's purple stripe. It's leftover Duchess yarn from Twisted Fiber Art, in the club-specific Dusk colourway. I might even be able to squeeze some into a third pair of socks, but I'll have to keep you posted on that one. I think the colours go together all right here, don't you?

Having come this far I could easily finish these socks today but... you know. I'm supposed to be knitting Christmas presents. (and tomorrow will do just as well I'm sure.)

Christmas knitting (but not from stash)

2011-11-25T04:48:00.000-08:00

I had several ideas about this year's approach to Christmas knits, the main one of which was to have it all done by the end of November. But between leaping from idea to another and getting sidetracked by socks and hats for me, I seem to be only this far in:

Also, I suspect my original idea of knitting a lot of little things I like and then releasing them to the person they've magically revealed being for is actually less wacky than picking a pattern and yarn and person before I cast on. I cite Hannah's hat and handwarmer set as primary proof - even before I saw that her coat will clash horribly with them, I was starting to feel they were really meant for somebody else. Plus, the handwarmers up there, the ones I knit last summer for Carol? I think they're for somebody else too - and not Hannah either. GAH.

None of this helps me solve the problem of what to give the one key person I need a cowl and handwarmer set for. I've had trouble committing to yarn, pattern, and colour all this time, the result being that Omigosh it's nearly December and I haven't even started. I can knock those gifts off in about five days of casual knitting, but that's not much comfort right now.

Enter Trish, who had reason (owing to having won prizes for her knitting at a recent Fair) to make a roadtrip to Mary's Yarns - a fabulous shop in a picture-postcard village - and invited me to come along. I got some tools...

... replacements for the hooked cable needle I still can't find, plus a fun set of 7mm dpns because I have some bulky yarn I'd like to turn into hats...

... and some yarn. I bought it to make Turkish Bed Socks for my aunt, but when I got home I realized it is really going to be the cowl and handwarmer set that have been blocking me for weeks (I should have guessed something was up when I bought what is essentially DK weight for a fingering pattern.)

Instead of a fussy lacy cowl, I'm going to take this butter-smooth merino/alpaca blend and knit a Bandana Cowl, possibly with a splash of contrast yarn for interest. And then maybe another pair of the Churchmouse handwarmers to go with, with some tweaking so the stitches match up to the cowl.

Whew!

Not that I'm out of the woods: the one negative about the Berroco yarn is that it stretches out on blocking, so I'm going to have to swatch very carefully not to make the cowl more of a wrap.

The day of thanking

2011-11-24T03:26:00.000-08:00

Being Canadian, I had my turkey day a few weeks back, but why be thankful just once? Here is what makes me give thanks today:

Having finished Hannah's handwarmers:

and her hat:

What does not make me give thanks:

The discovery yesterday that Hannah's winter coat is a decidedly non-complementary shade of PURPLE.

La la la - happy Thanksgiving!

Still knitting (socks)

2011-11-23T03:28:00.000-08:00

Even though I have, as you know, a rather long list of Christmas knits (and Christmas sews, and Christmas baking, and Christmas events that will take up valuable time for the aforementioned Christmas-ings) I seem to be not yet panicked about them.

Evidence A:

Oh, honestly. Can you blame me? It's cold out there, and incredibly soft and cuddly over here in the alpaca field.

I am being a cleverboots and using up the more-likely-to-be hardwearing remains of my most recent socks in the form of heel and toe, and I think the colour match is pretty perfect. Pretty, anyway.

I can't wait to wear these. And I swear having them on will make me bake faster. That's how knitting works, right?

Not quite ready for prime time

2011-11-22T04:43:00.000-08:00

Being a grownup in a city where it gets cold every year I'm a little amazed that my existing and vast supply of hats, coats, and boots isn't cutting it all of a sudden.

On the other hand, it's also years and years since I've had to commute several days a week for about 90 minutes on and off public transit and then stand in the cold for 15 or 20 more. Think about it: you gotta be warm enough for the outside, with shed-able layers for the all-too-brief inside periods, and your boots gotta not cripple you. Which in my case is a tall order, what with the whole orthoticky thing.

Add to that: a coat that is super lightweight, because you know I'm not just frolicking for the duration of this long haul. I'm carting stuff. And it's heavy. I tried it one day with my existing long wool dress coat and whoa: never again.

So I bought a new down coat from Land's End.

It makes up for being fairly shapeless and puffy by being super warm and incredibly light - and I know the picture is a bit pale owing to the sunshinyness issue, but isn't it a pretty colour? I could have ordered black, but I thought it might be nice to have a steely blue-grey to stand out a bit this year.

The catch: this coat clashes with Every. Hat. I. Own.

All of them.

Even the plain black felted one I bought 15 years ago, which implies a kind of 1930s style and therefore just looks horribly wrong.

Is this sinking in for you too? All those luxurious hats from hand-dyed fibers on my shelf are crying while I go out hatless, totally warm apart from the top of my head. This can't go on!!

Fortunately, I have more raw hat materials in the house, including some Malabrigo Silky I bought before I knew how hard variegated yarns are to work with:

I don't know how the picture shows up on your screen, but in real life it is a perfect match.

The second catch: Malabrigo Silky is known for stretching and sagging out after you knit and block your project. So I'm being a smarty smartpants. I have knit a long strip of garter stitch and blocked it:

and at some point I am going to wrap it around my head to see how tight it should be, then stitch it into a round band with a decorative button on the fold before I pick up stitches from the top edge and knit the warm part of a hat.

If I don't freeze first.

Gnomes vs Snowmen (knit version)

2011-11-21T03:38:00.000-08:00

I had the most marvelous long weekend - or what passes for one here - clearing my kitchen counters, my desk, and my inbox. Finally! I thought, I can peruse the link Binnie sent me days and days ago (days and days = 3).

Would that I had done this sooner, though a laugh is a laugh any old time. It seems the obviously brilliant Anna Hrachovec knit a modern interpretation of the Bayeux Tapestry, substituting gnomes and snowmen for the armies and adjusting weapons and battles to suit.

You can go through the entire show catalogue to get the full story, but I do not recommend drinking anything while you do it - your keyboard will not thank you!

Words words words

2011-11-18T05:43:00.000-08:00

which is to say: I could not take pictures before dark yesterday and it is still too dark now. (also, really cold out!) so you have to put up with just me and a lot of links today.

but if you hang on long enough, there is big news near the end of this post.

News items

My right elbow hurts. Is it possible I've been knitting too much? Trish says maybe, so I will try to rest it.

HA.

I buckled under the cold weather pressure and bought a new coat. It is a pretty blue-grey and very lightweight and crazy warm but clashes horribly with Every. Hat. I. Own. (yes, in spite of my having scads of hats, this is possible. I didn't believe it either.)

I found some yarn in my stash that matches the coat perfectly. I'm working on a hat design idea that involves no swatching; I'll keep you posted.

The non-swatchy idea might work for the bulky yarn I wanted to knit instead of knitting Christmas presents, too. I might try to resist this possibility. Or... I might not.

Doing a random pattern hunt at Ravelry involving no search words whatsoever, I found Milo (scroll down at the link), a child's vest. Hello, no-brainer?

I woke up this morning with an idea at the very front of my brain for the perfect solution to Christmas-cowl-from-handspun-yarn problem, similarly non-swatching. Again: keeping you posted.

The big news:

The French edition of the first pattern book of Biscotte designs is coming available in mid-December but can be pre-ordered now; I'll let you know as soon as I hear when the English edition is available, but in the meantime you can see the pictures of what's included, like my scarf - it's this one - and more importantly, This Hat. Which is in the book. Yes, and the matching handwarmers. You don't have to wait till next year after all (and you shouldn't!)

and finally...

Yesterday I treated myself to a lot of delicious teas and things to eat with same, so I am looking forward to a great weekend. Also: a great breakfast. See you Monday!

Christmas knitting progress report

2011-11-17T04:38:00.000-08:00

I almost called this entry 'No Knitting' because I have caught myself several times this week just collapsed on the sofa with nothing in my hands, staring at something on the TV that isn't even very interesting.

I think I must be tired?

However: I did knit a little on three different things yesterday - SuperSecret ScarfyThing while commuting for errands (during which yes, I bought myself another eccentric dress; something must be very wrong with me), alpaca socks while waiting for Hannah to come over, then Hannah's Christmas hat after she was gone.

Illustration of tiredness: Hannah's presents become so much an autopilot go-to knit, I had to actually allow myself the indulgence of working on the socks, totally forgetting that I ought not to be caught knitting somebody's gift by that very somebody. Yeesh.

Without further ado:

First Hannah-mitt finished on November 12

Second Hannah-mitt started on November 13

Second Hannah-mitt finished on November 14

(and no, I haven't run in the ends yet. or fully accepted the fact that somehow I managed to make the mitts marginally different in width.) Hannah hat started on November 15

... and continued on November 16

... and continuing today, though I'm pretty sure I'm near the end. I had hoped to be finished a gift every day or two till I'm done, and I'm counting a single mitt as a gift because I can, so I think I'm still on track. But I'm gonna have to get over the tired thing, and soon. Criminy!

Knitting for babies redux

2011-11-16T05:11:00.000-08:00

Some friends of mine are expecting a baby boy in January, so of course I was planning to knit something. The question is, what? Because fresh as I am from the baby cardi it took me six months to produce, I'm torn between

Oooooh, new baby - must knit!

and

Oooooh, new baby - off to Baby Gap!

Since the baby isn't two for another two and a half months I've been putting off committing to a pattern. I did design a blanket in my head for a project, but I'm not sure I have time to knit a whole blanket given everything else that goes on here, so I'm trying to avoid thinking about that.

Panic: on the weekend I was invited to a shower for the baby. Which is happening this weekend.

Disclaimer: I responded to Panic by heading straight for Baby Gap.

And now I am reminded that two and a half months that have Christmas in the middle are the knitting equivalent of two and a half weeks, and I gotta get going.

I fell in love with and have been obsessing about a little vest I saw on Amanda Soule's blog - scroll down at the link - called In Threes. Prepare yourself for a lot of Ravelry links by the way, with apologies to those of you who are not Ravelry members - a lot of designers offer their patterns though free downloads there and there's no other way to link to 'em. I linked to blogs where I could.

Back to In Threes: this little sweetie is essentially the baby cardi I knit last time, but in one colour and without the sleeves. I can think of all kinds of reasons a mother and baby would love this garment, mainly to do with the extra layer of squish and soft under the mum's hand and the core warmth for the baby, who is free to suck his or her hand and flail around generally.

But... well, I took it over to Knitting and Tea and Cookies and we agreed it's really more girl than boy.

Now, Pebble does not have the girly problem to worry about, and it looks like a superfast and extraordinarily sensible knit.

Except... well, the multiple-time mothers at Knitting and Tea and Cookies pointed out that buttoning up that many buttons is a crazymaking exercise.

Hert kindly suggested Kelly Brooker's Newborn Vertebrae, which is a long cardi without the front - or rather just enough front to stay on. Fast and sensible for putting onto a baby who is clutching onto your body and needs just a warm back.

It's just... I'm not 100% in love, and I'd like to be if I'm going to not knit other things to do it. You know?

Mamie1 has had speed and success with the Owlie Sleep Sack, and I was sold on that instantly because it's adorable. And functional! because you can tuck a baby up in it now, then use it as a surprise bag for stuffies and other toys later.

Then I noticed the big disclaimer at the pattern site that says this sack is not for sleeping in, for safety reasons. Well, yes. And now I'm thinking, why tempt fate?

Finally I thought to check my own library for baby patterns, and remembered how much I like the Baby Soft Cardigan from The Knitter's Book of Yarn. It's got the kind of sleeves I invariably sew in lumpy... but it's a fast knit.

Oh dear, what to do. Other than Baby Gap again, I mean.

(Maybe a few pairs of Kelly Brooker's Vanilla soaker pants? Because regardless of what sort of diaper goes underneath, they'd be awful cute.)

Alpacafoot

2011-11-15T04:44:00.000-08:00

Just before I went to visit this year's prizewinning fleece at the Fair, I spotted a booth selling alpaca yarns and kits and finished products, and kinda thought H'mmmm. There was a little basket with some skeins of sock yarn and I thought double H'mmmm, remembering the alpaca Ady gave me in the summer, which I immediately wanted to turn into socks and didn't, after some discussion about whether alpaca can really hold up to that, even with 20% nylon added. (consensus: no.)

The skeins in this basket were 70% alpaca and 30% nylon. More H'mmmm.

As I wandered off toward fleece and other exciting distractions, I pondered the sock yarn in the basket, which had the following compelling feature:

the words 'light DK' on the label.

also known as 'these socks will knit up so fast you'll think you've got lightning in your hands.'

But I had to think about it. The colours I noticed first were a denim blue with rose, and a green with yellow. I know it's a big draw when something looks great with jeans, but apart from a single denim skirt I don't actually wear jeans as they are insufficiently like pyjamas. And I don't wear lollipop green or yellow.

By the time I came to my senses and went back to the booth:

horrors!

A gentleman was removing the now-empty basket, and another lucky knitter was paying for a large heap of sock yarn.

I was just about to be crestfallen when I saw that three skeins remained, hanging on hooks above where the basket had been. And two of them were guess what?

Apparently there were 100 skeins of sock yarn at the start of the Fair and I bought numbers 98 and 99.

(while buying them, I realized that I was buying yarn from the very same Meadowview Alpaca Farm where Ady bought the original yarn. so now I'm thinking again of turning that into socks. realizing it was the same shop and saying so also made me forget to take my credit card away with me, a fact I didn't discover till I got home and found a voice message to suggest I might want to come back and get it, which tells you how exciting the whole thing was.)

All that happened on Friday night and you can imagine how the rest of the weekend unfolded even though I was supposed to be making a Christmas present, once I established that some hardwearing DK yarn left over from earlier socks is an acceptable heel-and-toe colour match for the denim alpaca.

First the skeins turned into something knittable.

Then the knittables turned into cakes divided for socks.

And then, late Sunday afternoon - against my better judgment - one of the cakes turned into a cuff.

(but I'm still gonna try to finish the Christmas presents first.)

Step away from the fleece

2011-11-14T03:37:00.000-08:00

A week or two ago Trish called my attention to the fact that after people have submitted their sheep's fleeces for judging at The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, and the prizes have been awarded, the winning fleeces are auctioned off.

To, you know, people. Who can then have the fleece prepared for spinning or knitting or dyeing and spinning and/or knitting or whatever.

Now, I already knew about the whole business of buying a fleece, going in with a friend or two to do it if it seems like more than one could knit in a lifetime. It just hadn't occurred to me that I might do this at some point. And I suspect that if my stash could sustain me through a two-year yarn drought, Trish's could sustain a family. I might add that Trish does not spin (despite my best efforts to lure her into that whole realm of addiction), further reducing the appeal of such a project.

So of course, we discussed the dates and time of the upcoming auction and agreed that we would not do a thing about it.

And then I went to the Fair.

Sigh.

More sighing.

Oh the sighing.

Next year. Next year!!

Onwards and... onwards

2011-11-11T04:45:00.000-08:00

Supersecret ScarfyThing is done! Long live Supersecret ScarfyThing (the second.)

While that project goes quietly along in the background, let me tell you that I've been moving forward with the Christmas Plan. I identified yarn for the Eleanor cowls I wanted to make, printed the pattern, assembled likely needles, and sat down to do a gauge swatch before coming to my senses.

I mean honestly.

Have you looked at that chart? I'm sure it's not hard really, and the many many people who have knit the cowl all say how much they enjoyed doing it, but even I can see it's not practical for me to knit two of them - one flat, one in the round - plus 14 other things, plus SuperSecret Scarves, just when all the Christmas baking is coming up.

Plus, the people for whom I intended them, though lovely, are neither blood relatives nor friends from decades past. If I want to do something special for them, would it really be so much worse to knit cowls of my own design from (chunky, and therefore superfast to knit) yarn I spun myself?

Reality: I'm facing it.

What I did start knitting was another Flight of the Phoenix handwarmer.

Now these things, I could knit forever. But they're so fast I won't be (even though I am finally well enough to head back to see Carol, my trainer, this morning. Yay! I think.)

See you Monday!

Sickbed knitting

2011-11-10T04:49:00.000-08:00

Sick: I am it again. I noticed a scratchy throat in the night early last week and by the weekend my voice was nothing more than an intermittent squeak. Thanks to a whole lotta tea and water and the occasional glass of orange juice plus lots of sleep, I can now do the gargling gravel trick. Go me!

The relationship between illness and knitting is complicated. My cousin, on hearing I felt like roadkill, said "Rest up! Drink lots of tea and don't knit!" My friend, who isn't coming over today so I can finish getting better, said "Hope you get lots of rest and knitting time!"

So, is knitting relaxing and feel-bettery, or a drain on one's recovery energy?

Supporting my friend's view I present Saturday: my worst day, spent on the sofa watching a lot of movies and knitting the hat I got obsessed with making after I saw Sandra knitting one in similar colours the day before.

(It's made up of leftover shawl yarn so I have a set for the winter, and it came out pretty much as I hoped it would and doesn't look too bad on me, it was pretty good to knit although A Very Bad Thing Happened* when I was making it, and while it took me the entire day I did finish by bedtime. Go me, again!)

Supporting my cousin: since then, my knitting plans have been interrupted and slowed by naps. A lot of naps. Like yesterday, I keeled over for what I hoped would be a short rest and clawed my way off the bed about two and a half hours later. I so could have been telling you that I finished SuperSecret ScarfyThing if it hadn't been for that, and I fear today won't really be an improvement because even though I have been up for about an hour and have nearly finished drinking a cup of seriously high voltage tea I am finding it hard not to fixate on my pillow.

In good news, I did manage to finish off the second yoga sock this week:

Which makes my finished Christmas Knits pile look like this:

Whoooo! Go me, bigtime! Two whole presents.

Yikes. Boy do I need to get healthy again.

* The hat has a few cable twists in it, and at one point I stood up and my hook-shaped cable needle - my speediest and therefore my favourite - fell off my lap and dinged twice on the floor before disappearing. I have looked, I have had two friends look, we have moved furniture, we have used flashlights. We haven't found it. I shudder for my Bellatrix socks. Thank goodness Trish and I have an LYS date for next week; hopefully I can buy a replacement.

Secrets I've been keeping

2011-11-09T06:59:00.000-08:00

Every so often I check in at Ravelry to see how I'm doing with projects and I can't believe how many I've pulled off this year (31 started and finished, so far.) But what really amazes me is when I remember a lot of those were things I also designed, and that I also took time to spin yarn. How the heck do I get all that stuff done? And how much writing could I do if I wasn't doing it?

h'mmmm.

Anyway as November progresses we get closer to December, when - I am pretty sure - most of the stuff I designed in 2011 will be making its way out into the sunshine.

Like the two patterns I've just left with my technical editor (one of them is going to knock your socks off; the other might put them on.)

Or the things that other people wanted to publish (including the amazing supersecret item I kinda tortured you guys with last spring.)

What won't be coming out that soon is the SuperSecret ScarfyThing. And I really want to tell you about that even though I can't show it to you, because it's so SuperAwesome in its portability and I'm just too happy not to say Yay.

Remember all the trouble I had in the fall carting socks around on the subway? Well, I don't have that problem anymore thanks to SS ST.

It's knit with yarn that comes in 50g balls, and because it's worked flat I can use a fold-up friendly circular needle instead of long straights or extra pointy dpns.

The stitch pattern is ridiculously easy to remember and execute - I got in some serious distance on it at a concert one afternoon, with no need to look at the needles - and every few rows there is a change that serves as a clear progress point before going back to the same old same old.

(except the same old same old gets prettier the more there is of it, to say nothing of the drape that unfolds as you go, so it kinds gets new instead.)

And the yaaaaarrrrn... okay, I'm being cruel now. But it's soft, and even though the ScarfyThing gets long fast it's actually just fingering so you can fit a lot of yardage into that 50g ball. I was able knit miles of it before adding a second ball and making it a little too bulky for my purse.

Which is where we get to the downside of the SS ST. It's so awesome, you have to kind of hide working on it lest somebody ask you to make another. And the upside: when that happens, you have a new SS ST to cart around for when the old one gets too big. Ahem.

But enough chat, I have a date with some old movies and the original SS ST; I wanna finish it today so I can sneak in some time on a certain bulky hat tonight. Or, um, a Christmas knit. Yeah, that's it. Christmas.

Knitting fondant

2011-11-08T07:18:00.000-08:00

While hunting for needles to cast on a Christmas project (not the bulky hat I'm obsessing about, because I am a better person than that), I discovered them already stuck into a partially completed yoga sock:

I totally forgot I'd cast these on, and I can only dimly remember working on them with future gift-giving in mind while my mum was in the hospital a year and a half ago. I was using them as panic-control knitting and apparently when the panic subsided my interest in the socks did too.

Indecision resulted from the discovery. First thought: finish them, and throw them in the Christmas pile. Second: rip them out and get those needles free again . Third: are you crazy? finish them. Fourth, while nearing the toe: I just can't, please let me rip these out now.

I opted to stick with them, mainly because the darned things remind me so much, in this yarn and colour, of fondant.

Fondant Story.

From the ages of around 11 to 14, I was best friends with a girl so completely different from me we could have had our own sitcom. Looking back I realize the reason we were so attached was not because of these fascinating differences but because we had bonded over our mutual love for candy, in all forms.

One day we were over at her house on a rainy day, aka far from any candy store with limited access to umbrellas, and there was no candy at hand, so we decided to talk her mother into letting us bake something. I got a craving for fondant, a mostly-sugar base my mum used for all sorts of delicious treats like chocolate-dipped Easter eggs and also potatoes, dredged in cocoa for St. Patrick's Day. I sold my friend's mother on this idea partly with 'delicious' and especially, as I have reason to recall, 'light and fluffy.'

It didn't occur to me at that age that different cooks write different recipes for the same item so I just picked the first fondant instructions I found in her mother's cookbook library. Unlike my mum's recipe it called for 'boiled sugar'. Could anything be more delicious sounding? But if you have ever boiled sugar yourself you will know it's tricky to do, and can easily result in sugar burned for eternity to the bottom of your friend's mother's best pot.

I don't think I'll ever forget her saying 'LIGHT and FLUFFY??' for the rest of the afternoon in her broad Yorkshire accent as she mourned that pot. Plus, she wouldn't let us try again with a different recipe so we never did get any fondant.

End of Fondant Story

What I've learned from this experience is that it's not really in me to knit things randomly and gift them to somebody later when I have a binful of items to shop from. I gotta have a person in mind, and a date on which I'm giving it, or I can't produce the goods. Eventually I decided to give the fondant socks to Carol, who still loves the first pair I gave her and could probably use a change of colour at least, and afterward the knitting was much less agonizing. Also: fast. This pattern is just crazy fast to do.

Incidentally in reknitting it all this time later I did discover a couple of small errors in the original version, so I've corrected them and loaded a clean copy up at the links.

And now: back to gift knitting! but not the hat. Nope, not casting on that hat.

Destashing for Christmas

2011-11-07T05:25:00.000-08:00

Hello, first Monday in November! This is the day I promised myself I would start the Christmas knitting I've been putting off since April, when it first occurred to me to get going already.

(I did knit a pair of fingerless gloves last spring... so I sort of started, but barely.)

The last few weeks I've been sizing up the people around me for knitworthiness and considering what to focus on this year. It's not too hard - the stores here are packed full of cowls and handwarmers which have suddenly become critical accessories. I even found a pair of fingerless gloves actually attached to fingered 'gloves' that stopped half an inch either side of the fingerless part. I'd rather knit a ton of hats, but they can be fussy to fit, so cowls and handwarmers it is.

About 16 of them, in various combinations, because some people rate one of each. GAH.

Moving on to yarn:

This is what I started with when I went looking for yarn that is not absolutely earmarked for pattern-writing or stuff for me. Not a bad assortment really - there's a pretty good range of styles and weights, and nothing that isn't luxurious in some way.

Oh, and also, the handspun:

At this point I feel a bit overwhelmed by choice, so instead of thinking What to make for what person, I'm thinking What can I make with What yarn. There has been a lot me hunting Ravelry for bulky-weight cowl patterns for example. And a lot of mulling over whether I can get away with using the superbulkiest yarn - top left corner of the yarn basket; it's discontinued Noro - for a hat for me even though I'm supposed to be thinking of others.

(this is a chronic problem, and the reason why the Christmas knitting always happens at the end of the year.)

Unfortunately this approach doesn't seem to be yielding much by way of ideas, apart from the persistent hat one I really need to ignore, or possibly consider a reward for the completion of my first three gifts.

I know I want to knit some Eleanor Cowls. For that I need sport weight, which I have - but in limited colour choices I'm not sure are going to be right for anybody but me.

And I really want to knit that bulky Noro hat. Dang. Why do I do this?

At least there's one safe project: the super fun Flight of the Phoenix set. I can safely knit both hat and handwarmers because I already have those myself and I can use up some nice denimy yarn to do them. Whew. And now if you'll excuse me, I gots some knitting to do.

Five-day socks

2011-11-04T10:18:00.000-07:00

I did it: I totally made the second sock (in Twisted Fiber Art's Duchess) in just one day.

(with perfect striping matchup, incidentally.)

My secret? I didn't eat lunch, or remember to do three of the urgent and important chores for the day.

Also, after taking too long to chat with Trish in the morning and then with Bob in the evening - I have no excuse for Trish, since I see her a lot, but Bob and I have both been too busy to catch up since I saw him in July so I wasn't going to turf him off the phone over a personal sock challenge - I didn't bother to graft the toes shut until today,

after a fun coffee date with Sandra. She showed me the school-colours hat she's making and I had more hat envy, not least because it's getting cold again and it would be great to have a hat to match the cashmere-blend Escapist shawl I was wearing. I'm sure the fact that the golden yellow of my shawl matches one of the stripes in her hat has nothing to do with the sudden desire to cast on.

But I think I will restrain myself because next week I am starting the Christmas knits. And the sewing festings. And maybe three more pairs of these socks because here is the deal:

I pulled off these socks in five days, people. Five days! And I coulda done it in two, if nobody called and/or I didn't get hungry!

Yes, I know. They're not exactly glam or inspired when it comes to the stitch, and they sag through the ankle owing to my not taking the time for ribbing, and the feet are a bit roomy, but they are comfy-warm like nobody's business. And considering that nobody is going to see anything but the top two inches that peek out from my boots - which I contend are as cute as anybody could wish for - that's what counts.

Best of all, while I dutifully knit Christmas cowls over the rest of the month, I can be proud of knowing that not all socks take 6-plus weeks to make. I could do a pair in six days, if I wanna. And you know what? If I get the Christmas knits done fast, I just might wanna.

Lookit!

2011-11-03T06:49:00.000-07:00

Lookit what I did last night!

And to recap, I started it just four nights ago, and have knit a couple of other small things in the meantime. Context: in fingering yarn, I haven't finished a pair of socks in less than six weeks. I am so in love with DK. And also with how perfectly these stripes came out.

Guess what I'll be doing today?

Yep. Had to do something while I waited for enough light to take that first picture, right? I never do this - knit one sock and then the other - so I guess this is my chance to find out what Second Sock Syndrome is like. Somehow though I don't think it'll be a problem...

A day without knitting?

2011-11-02T05:00:00.000-07:00

Somebody asked me when was the last time I went a day without knitting, and I really couldn't think. Even when Les died - even the day of his funeral - I knit a little. I seem to recall though there was a day last winter when I was so terribly sick with food poisoning that I could barely lift my head off the pillow let alone get my noodle fingers to work.

I guess that's what it takes to keep me from knitting right now - disabled fingers. It's funny to think that I went twenty years without knitting at all, and before that, when I was a teen in sweater mode, I knit only to produce cool (well, warm, technically) clothes. I wonder whether this is a second windstorm that will pass eventually and leave me surrounded by needles and yarn I won't have any desire to touch?

(shudder)

Meanwhile: I finally made myself graft those sock toes yesterday.

I'm so excited to have these socks done and ready to wear: I'm going to a Thing on Friday night for which I want to wear a new dress that matches them really well. Maybe I can get better Finished Object pictures of them then.

And also, I finally got to open the last of my Biscotte club yarn:

You might have to click on that picture to see the special feature (hint: sparkles.) It got a little silver in it, along with merino wool and silk and nylon. And it's so very much my colours.

Today's challenge: a day without knitting (my new sock.) Seriously. In spite of getting those grafted toes out of the way, a new wrinkle popped up with another project that has to be done and dry by Friday morning. So... that's good news, right? I might be stopped now, but on the weekend? Look Out.

Self-restraint

2011-11-01T03:39:00.000-07:00

H'mmmm. I was supposed to graft the toes of my otherwise-finished Other Socks yesterday but...

Knitting socks in a DK weight is so addictive! Not least because it is so fast.

(seriously: I didn't start these in earnest till Saturday night, and in two days I've had time to turn the heel, knit the entire gusset, realize I made a mistake the colour change that will leave a lump under my foot, rip the entire gusset out, and start reknitting it. And I've pulled all that off with 2.5mm needles owing to my continuing, ridiculously loose, tension. I think I am in love.)

Sensibly overstretched

2011-10-31T03:38:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been really focused on whittling down my projects to the smallest number possible, with a view to being less stressed over what I'm not knitting. But then I thought about what I did on Saturday.

Early in the day - errands and such - I got further toward finishing some socks.

In the afternoon I went to a concert and brought along my second SuperSecret ScarfyThing, because I've memorized the stitch and don't have to rustle any pattern instructions, and the needles I'm using for it are veryvery quiet.

Sorry I can't show you any inside-the-bag pictures, heh.

During the evening I visited with a friend and needed something even more mindless than the nearly-finished socks, so I started a new pair of superwarm ones with some Duchess (DK, squishy) from Twisted Fiber Art.

I bought the leg colourway, featured in the spring 2011 club, because it looked like it would pair up nicely with some semisolid I'd bought before, but I see now it's off enough, almost, to clash. Almost but not quite. I think I'm just going to go on, and live with whatever comes out of this experiment.

Now, if I was just knitting one project, the socks would have been finished halfway through the concert and I would have had to scramble for time and ideas to cast on something new for the evening. Or, if I'd been working only on the ScarfyThing, it would have kept me from looking attentively at my friend during our conversation. And if I didn't get a start on the socks, brrrr. Cold toes for weeks to come.

So I'm going to stop beating myself up for what I don't work on, and be grateful that I never have to Not Knit. Because that would be so much worse than feeling badly over one particular Not Knit thing.

Warm toes: the plan

2011-10-28T06:32:00.000-07:00

The other day Trish was over having a look at the SuperSecret ColourWorky project in process (yes, expect cruel teasers in the coming days) and I thoughtlessly glanced up to a basket on a cabinet and said "Check out my queue basket."

We both looked at it a minute and I said Actually, that's not the whole queue. I have all that bulky handspun from the summer I'm supposed to knit into cowls for Christmas presents. That's just the socks.

Trish said Mary, you will never get all those socks done by Christmas.

I said Trish, I will never get all those socks done in a year.

We won't discuss my subsequent panic over not being able to find the handspun (it turned out to be in a similar basket on top of another cabinet, which I mention here only to remind myself where it is when I get time to start all those cowls). Anyway, it only served to distract me from drawing the conclusion that I need to stop buying sock yarn. (golly, do I really need to stop buying sock yarn???)

Within a couple of days the weather turned cold here - seriously cold - which means my Vesper stripeys are no longer warm enough inside my unlined Blundstone boots. It's time to go to the seriously warm socks, of which I have just four pairs. Yes. Four. That's a lot of handwashing and even then, one is too long in the foot, another is too short in the leg, a third is a little snug all over and still manages to slip down inside the boots... you get the picture.

Here is the revised queue basket, with the Vesper stripeys taken out. All six of these projects will be warm enough to get me through to snowstorm season when I have to give up and wear my thermal lined boots (at which point I have also to give up wool socks and go with cotton athletic ones, sigh.)

But only three are bulky enough to be superfast to knit, and I think it's fair to say that speed is of the essence.

Referring to my past projects on Ravelry - what few I thought to note needle size for, GAH - it appears that I can use 2.75mm needles for all of these (fast!) and cast on just 56sts (superfast!). So that's the plan. Speed knitting of warm socks. Once the SuperSecret ColourWorkys are done. Which, if I type fast enough here, will be after lunch today.

Meanwhile, have a good weekend, with my best wishes for warm toes!

Pink fiber for a rainy day

2011-10-27T04:07:00.000-07:00

We've had several days of rain where I live, not to mention several days of No Pictures here at Hugs, so I decided this is a good time to show some yarn in the making.

Remember the Briar Rose fiber I bought at the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitters' Fair?

Well, a couple of weekends ago when I wasn't superbusy doing supersecret projects, I snuck out of the house with my spinning wheel.

I did this,

and then this,

and then some of this,

and got this.

And ever since I've wanted to get more of it so I could ply some yarn, but you know. Supersecret knitting.

Only for another day though I think, so next week we'll be back to lots of pictures again. heh heh heh.

Dream knitting

2011-10-26T03:48:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning thinking Wow, what a great thing to write about today! Apparently a little essay had occurred to me, intact, while I slept.

Now that I'm ready to sit down though it occurs to me that this belief may have been based on a dream I had about being able to buy reasonably soft undyed fingering wool in the grocery store in - if I remember correctly - the jarred olive section. Because wool was in some way found to be good for olives when packed together.

Also in the night: I spent a very long time trying to make a phone call in a bookstore (I was hampered by not knowing what number I had to dial) and discovered a book about a little girl who knits a magical thing, the magic going awry when her stitches go wrong.

Do you think I've been knitting too much? Or maybe just knitting too close to bedtime? It's true I really wanted to get the colourworky thing done fast so I would have a shot at getting the Bellatrix socks finished and fell into bed shortly after I finished.

Oh! Bellatrix! That's what I wanted to say today.

I bought a witch's hat last night. Not the purple spiderwebby one that would have been a perfect match for the socks, or the purple satin one covered in Victorian-like silk flowers and lumps of spidered mesh that Bellatrix herself might actually have favoured, but a red version of the spiderwebby thing. Partly because it actually came with a cape and had a price on it (the lineup was long in the store, and the purple hat was obviously missing its cape), but partly because it locks me in to wearing my backup Halloween socks, which have an orange-green-brown stripe like pumpkins. I need an out, right?

But when I got it home I found the hat is more of the Dunce variety than Witch. So maybe I will just put on another big push for Bellatrix socks and forget the hat altogether.

Or get more sleep.

I'm on a roll

2011-10-25T03:38:00.000-07:00

Remember I mentioned making a mistake with the lacy sock and fixing it only to realize I'd been looking at the wrong part of the chart? Twice?

Well, I didn't mention the twenty minutes I spent on Friday fixing a mistake from three rows back in a different, totally mindless sock (I do think ripping out would have been faster).

This makes me nervous because I sometimes find I get on a roll with knitting - all bliss, or all mistakes - and I really, really don't want to be on the latter type of roll right now.

Signs of doom: yesterday I was virtuous and stayed away from the lace socks to get going on a colourworky project I need to have finished soon, and got almost two hours in before I realized I'd used Colour B for Colour A. Which matters because you need twice as much of B as you do for A, leaving me with not enough A for B, if you know what I mean.

I wonder whether I should risk knitting today at all?

(that was rhetorical: you know I'm going to. just wish me luck, okay?)

Balance through despair - knit edition

2011-10-24T03:46:00.000-07:00

The only way I can see having a chance at wearing evilly pretty purple socks on Halloween is if I'd got my Bellatrix socks to their heel flaps by the end of Saturday night. And look!

A sock leg all the way through its chart!

Two sock legs all the way through their charts!

I was up till midnight pulling that off. And then - still before midnight - I read the pattern instructions.

Repeat the chart once, then repeat rounds 1-24 of chart.

Or in lay terms, find another 8 hours to get the socks to heel.

Well, wanh. I was so annoyed with myself on Sunday for unrealistic deadline-setting I didn't knit at all, all day, except for a few minutes while I waited for friends to turn up for a tea party (Waitrose organic Assam, by the way, a present from Carolyn and insanely delicious) and even then it wasn't on the socks. Instead: I cleaned the house. I mean, I was having a tea party.

Interestingly (to me) I cheered up a lot while cleaning, even though there is nothing I hate more than cleaning. I'm not even a huge fan of tidying. But I love being in a clean and tidy space and get stressed in a messy dirty one, and I'd been letting things go while sitting endlessly on the sofa trying to rush these socks.

About an hour before it was time to pack it in for the day I sat down to watch a string of Buster Keaton movies - oh how I love that man, what a genius - and picked up one of the socks again to start the next 24 rows of chart. Yes, I know. Knitting complicated charted lace while 'watching' a silent film? I didn't get much done. But I felt quite peaceful about it (except when I was thinking I'd made a mistake two rounds back and adjusting it elaborately from above only to realize I'd been looking at the wrong part of the chart, which happened twice.)

I guess the key is just to enjoy knitting and not expect too much from it. I feel so much more adult and responsible now that I've had that reminder...

... and also, grateful that I have a clean house now and can spend most of the day knitting a Bellatrix sock.

Sticking to it

2011-10-21T04:47:00.000-07:00

Guys, I am all over the Halloween socks. Apart from some time out to get a different sock's heel far enough along to be travel knitting, I have done nothing but lace charts for - what, is it two days now?

Even though there has been laundry (five loads yesterday, including the Christmas tablecloth which I guess must have been sitting in the basket for a while).

Even though there is a really very dangerous amount of Halloween candy in the house (of which I think I may actually be sick now, wouldn't that be great? and if not I can put it in the garage for the 10 days it still has to wait before I can unload it on random children).

Even though I received not one or two but THREE packages of yarn in the mail on Thursday - seriously, how ironic is that? - the contents of which I can show you but this:

Isn't it a doozy? It's variegated yarn from Knitterly Things and if I had more needles available and my Slughorn sock kit wasn't murmuring my name, I might weaken more than I did when I unwrapped it. As it is, it's sitting out on the table so I can wind it into cakes and Be Ready because the socks I make with it are gonna go with everything.

Thanks to my persistence and in spite of Life, which seems to include an annoying degree of errands and phone calls lately, the back half of my first Bellatrix Lestrange sock looks like this:

(plus a few more rounds since I lost daylight.)

On reflection this doesn't seem like much sock, but the lace is quite absorbing and TCM ran some pretty absorbing movies yesterday so, you know. At least I haven't had to frog back yet! I miss one critical round, but I noticed it a round and a half later so I don't count that. Honest mistake really.

Hope you guys have a great weekend, with or without an exciting purple project in it - see you Monday!

Shawl story

2011-10-20T03:41:00.000-07:00

Finishing my FoxyMaple shawl project was easy compared to writing about it here.

Do you remember how it started - the idea I had to combine my braids of Foxy and Maple fiber from Twisted Fiber Art clubs into one big project so I'd have enough for a shawl? I was so excited to take on an experiment that right away I could see would work very well and be fun to do. Several colours were the same, or very similar, in both colourways but each had a few more shades and as I spun my way into July's Tour de Fleece I got to experience them all up close.

I learned so much more about spinning when I made this yarn, too. It came out bulky like all my newbie yarn does, but pretty consistent in size, which is still a novelty. The summer had just started and I was enjoying having a cup of tea and then taking my wheel out to a corner of the porch for an hour's spinning and birdsong every morning.

Of course nothing is perfect: while I was enjoying those hours, somebody I love was dying. I had already designed my Escapist shawl while worrying about that, and because Lannie was worrying too I knew I was going to spin the FoxyMaple and knit it into one of those shawls for her. I thought about that a lot as I spun, when I wasn't thinking about the chances of getting good news, or at least not the worst news.

And then we did get the worst news. It came while the Tour was still running, and I shifted the FoxyMaple to a spindle so it could come in the car with me when I left town for the funeral. It just seemed so important to keep going. I spun some while sitting with Lannie one evening; I handed the spindle to her so she could hold it for a while. I didn't have to tell her I was making it for her. Who else would appreciate everything that was going in to that fiber?

I started the shawl in August, but by the end of the month things were just busy. You know how it is. I had to set it aside for a while. I'd work on it sometimes, a row here or there.

The yarn was heavy and light, both at the same time, and the fabric I was getting was so dense. I was sure the shawl would be too small to be of any use. When I finally had time to finish it and cast off, I was amazed by how tiny it was, just a little bundle not much bigger than the two braids it came from.

I put off blocking it. Blocking out something big like this is hard anyway, I find - it takes a lot of time and even more space. When I finally did get it into its bath and stretched it out it was huge.

See what I had to do?

Yep. I had to pin the corners to the underside of the mat.

It was all-encompassing, and so full of holes.

I'm sure I don't need to spell out how that brought right back to me all the little losses tied up in that one very big loss.

This shawl and I have been on quite a journey. I hope I never take another one like that, but I'm glad to have something so useful to show for it and I think really, though it's full of sadness, it's also full of beauty and love. It has an artist's eye for colour from Meg at Twisted, and it's got resourcefulness from me, trying to do something productive to get through a bad time. It's full of tenacity, and companionship, and warmth. A lot of warmth.

It felt important to take this one last picture of the shawl on the portable step that Les built, in the corner where I spun the yarn.

I'm ready to let it go now. I hope Lannie will find comfort in it, but I know one thing for sure:

she is gonna look awesome wrapped up in these colours.

A (crazy) little project

2011-10-19T04:20:00.000-07:00

The funny thing about future events is they keep getting closer. Which means that I should be focusing on baking (and freezing) cookies for December delivery to all my neighbours which has apparently become a tradition, and making a whole lotta little Christmas gifts.

Instead I cast on some Bellatrix Lestrange socks:

First Impressions

omigosh the lace. It is so intricate and balanced. Rachel Coopey is a genius! It would have taken me ages and ages to work out so much snaky complication, but now that she's mapped it out it's quite logical to follow and once I got the cuff set up I could follow it without the chart. That will change when I get going with the leg, but for now: yay!

Also - there is purple, and there is Evil Purple. Louise has dyed this a lovely shade of purple with hits of white ash and poison blue. I just can't think of a better combination of theme, pattern, and yarn. This is one irresistible project.

Reality Check

There is no way I can have these done in time to wear for Halloween. I know that. It would be nice if I could finish them before I open the next Biscotte Club packet on November 1, but obviously. Me, of the two-month socks, making a pair of socks in two weeks filled with Life plus a front yard that needs decorating with leaf bag monsters and a big headless man? Socks that are knit from an elaborate chart with the occasional cable needle activity and can therefore only be done (by me) from a comfy sofa? Please. Not possible.

(I'm knitting them anyway. Let's see how far I get!)

It has come to this

2011-10-18T07:16:00.000-07:00

Last week I kinda shocked Trish when I mentioned I'd just bought two winter scarves. "Your stash isn't big enough??" she asked.

But here's my theory: If you're wearing a handknit hat and handknit (or handsewn from felted wool) handwarmers over your gloves and handknit socks, and maybe even a handknit cardi (what a hope!) under your coat, you might look a little too much like a good thing. If you have the odd woven scarf to throw into the mix, the knits stand out more. Personally I'm just proud not to have shelled out for a loom. Because you know that's gonna happen.

Naturally my priority was the sort of intensely boring accessory I would never weave even if I had a loom. To whit, from Club Monaco, a finely woven very long black merino thing with fringe (which keeps catching on everything from my purse zipper to the inside of the dishwasher door: You Have Been Warned). It is warm and unbelievably soft - I have no softer stash fiber, and fyi there's qiviut in that cupboard - and unfolds to massive proportions even by shawl standards. Textural lift aside it looks dull as ditchwater on but serves its two purposes well.

Two Purposes

a/ keep me warm without drawing attention away from whatever way spiffier thing I am wearing

b/ keep those super itchy wool cardi collars away from my neck already

At a very long concert the other night it also proved entertaining to a small child who improvised a stuffed-toy relationship with it. I did say 'soft', right?

Having established that this whoa expensive item was justified - though actually it cost just a few dollars more than the two skeins of yarn I'd have needed to make one myself, making it bargainlike - let's move on to Scarf Number Two.

This one cost $17. It's only mostly wool - the rest is I think nylon. It was woven on some fancy loom in Italy and a friend who saw it after the sleek black one said Oh. It looks like a throw blanket.

Fair enough, but I had to have it, because I was pretty sure I had something to go with it.

See what I mean? Woven and knitted stuff is just meant to go together. Though this picture reminds me that lipstick also has its place.

(Hat note: I didn't show you this one before because it is a Fail. I must have worked it out three different ways and it's still more mushroom cap than slouch or beret, plus the stitchcount shift between small brim and full band is bumpy. However, it's made with alpaca, and hand-dyed art yarn, and also some handspun plant-dyed yarn from Sally, so I wear it anyway.)

Fresh foot forward

2011-10-17T05:28:00.000-07:00

On the weekend I did some Clearing Up, not just of the house generally but also of my knitting-in-progress. Yep, it was that out of control. Never mind that I have two big sweater projects sitting in (admittedly decorative) bags by the sofa just waiting for me to pick them up again - let's not even talk about the one that's hibernating in the cupboard - I have a bunch of other things in play too, and a bunch of new things becoming urgent as Christmas gets closer.

Some of this job just involved putting needles back where they go, and yarn ends into a bag for some future inspiration. But I also ripped out the Escapist shawl I had started in the cashmere blend yarn I cabled over the summer. I wasn't very far along (see shawl link above and scrooooooll down) which made it easier, and besides: I have three triangle shawls on the Warm (for) Winter shelf already. A rectangle or crescent might be nice, right?

Other things potential on the ripping-out list include the fingerless gloves I was making from the gorgeous silk hankies I bought from Helena. I love the premise of this project - heck, I love the project, having knit a pair of handwarmers from the pattern already and boy I hope I find those soon because they were supposed to be a Christmas present - but I know for a fact I have been letting the fiber get too narrow for the gauge I need and I'm thinking

errrrrr

what about just spinning the hankies???

That at least is something I know how to do. and then I can make handwarmers with the spun stuff if I want. probably at the right gauge even.

Giving up the handwarmers (for now) would free up set of needles I vitally need for another project, too. It's a bitter pill, which is why the cuffs are still on the needles, but I am nose to nose with reality and thinking I might just acknowledge it. Not today, but soon.

Getting to a tidy project pile isn't all about ripping things off their needles. Look! I also made myself finish something:

Recognize the green socks I was agonizing about the cuff length of?

They are short, to be sure, and the gusset area is a bit more of a squeeze than I like, but I'm glad I didn't rip them back and reknit because they'll do. In fact I ended up wearing them the rest of the day I took these pictures even though I hadn't blocked them yet and they were still a bit itchy, because they do so well.

Plus, the cuff does show over the top of my boots. Not a lot, but enough.

Incidentally - you may recall that I knit these socks on some newfangled square needles.

Q: Now that I'm free of these socks and therefore free of the needles, would I knit more socks on them?

A: Probably not. They are fabulously comfortable to use which is very much in their favour, but in spite of getting gauge when I first tested, over time the needles really did produce smaller stitches (not enough to fix the problem by going up a size either). Also: just too sharp for portability. Though ironically I just started a pair of socks for which these needles would have been perfect since they call for a ton of stitches and I can only knit them with a chart in front of me... but that's a story for another day.

I finished something else!

2011-10-14T04:46:00.000-07:00

huzZAH - and just in time for the rain to stop and temperatures to drop. Not that I'm rushing anybody or anything. I don't mind getting a little too warm wearing this hat.

I love it so much!

The stripes even lined up between bands, almost.

I had to stripe between the solid I used for the crown and the club yarn in order to stretch out said club yarn, and I came close to starting and stopping at the right places (proof that I didn't make it: there is a small amount of club yarn left, which I'm considering using for some duplicate stitch on the crown - if I do it, I'll show pictures.) The big thing was to make sure I got the forehead part in 100% Biscotte Club yarn because Gobelin is the softest, squishiest yum ever. There are some things you just have to take advantage of, you know?

But never mind my tinkering. Check out this fantastic construction:

I'm not sure I even need to block it. I might do it... if the weather holds... or I might just wear it a lot. Either way I'm looking at a good weekend because I Finished Something Else!

(hope you get a good weekend too. try to have chocolate if you can so I'm not alone on that.)

The gory details:

Pattern: Flight of the Phoenix Hat by Louise Robert, October 2011 Biscotte et Cie yarn club
Yarn: yummy Gobelin (100% superwash merino), Biscotte et Cie, in exclusive Flight of the Phoenix colourway
Backup Yarn: Cascade Superwash in an almost-matchy orangey yellow
Fuel: insane amounts of Hallowe'en candy which really needs to get out of my house and never come back.
Availability: exclusive to the Club right now, but probably in wide release in 2012 - ask at Biscotte if you're as much in love with this pattern as I am.

Viola

2011-10-13T04:54:00.000-07:00

Viola used to mean to me What Binnie Plays, but I'm afraid that while I esteem Binnie as much as ever (have you read her book Harbour View? it is fabulous - so moving and often funny too) Viola now calls to mind images of yarn/colour perfection in settings I only wish I could reproduce at home. Every time I see Emily's booth at a knitting fest I think, How Cute! and then the next time she's doing a different display and I think, She Can't Top That! and then she does, the next time.

(this time it was twisted branch letters spelling V - I - O - L - A perched on top of her display shelves. which were also cute.)

Okay, so let's talk yarn. Buying some Viola has become a priority at all of these shows so why should the recent Kitchener-Waterloo Knitters Fair be an exception? I would digress and tell you the moving story about how Emily is woven in to all the luck and blessings of my creative life but that would just keep you from the aforementioned yarn - we'll leave it at 'she helped me buy yarn for a scarf in an LYS once, and the gift of the scarf brought me to my writing mentor'. You can see how I would want to have lots of Viola in the house all the time, for more than just its exquisiteness.

La la la, it is so hard to choose colours, so why go with Pebble? Because it's neutral and also gorgeous, even if you don't get all the subtleties from a camera. I bought these two skeins of 100% superwash merino in a fingering weight to make another scarf design I have been brewing for about a year, and now that I'm finishing up a bunch of small projects it's possible I can actually get going on it before January.

After I left the Fair for the day I realized GAH there was another scarf design I had neglected to buy yarn for. Back I went, for these:

I had intended get one colour but I couldn't decide between Thistle and Chimney Smoke, and maybe a patchworky effect would be cool for that idea. I hope so. The other possibility for this merino/cashmere/nylon yarn is related to its being Sport Weight. Hello, 16 more Flight of the Phoenix hats? Because I am telling you, that pattern is addictive.

I've been cheating

2011-10-12T03:33:00.000-07:00

I've been cheating - if I add up my Ravelry projects with the supersecret stuff I haven't listed there - on nine different things this week. Well, last week too. After all my gift knitting over the past few months I've been indulging not just in some spinning but also some hat-making, for me me me.

Honestly, I've got to be realistic: right now the weather is still warm, but we are going to be hit with cold temperatures without much notice and there is no point waiting for them to suddenly decide that I need a nice hat to go with my new handwarmers.

This has nothing (much) to do with the fact that I'm completely smitten with the concept of spiral knitting.

My goal is to keep striping the two yarns I'm using so as to stretch out the one I used for the handwarmers, switching back to the handwarmer yarn just in time for my forehead and the finish. I can live with scratchy yarn at the back or the top of a hat, but it is just so depressing to be slogging through slush in cold wet winds and to have an itchy forehead too.

Well, I guess there are two goals. The other is to do this expertly on the first try so I don't have to frog back and reknit. And if I pull that off, I'll go back to one of the other projects I'm cheating on. Promise!

A place in the sun

2011-10-11T08:53:00.000-07:00

Last night I stayed up too late reading The New Yorker (September 26, 2011 issue) and was a little horrified to come upon a cartoon by Roz Chast (page 90) that breaks down blogs into three groups, of which one is "stories about crap somebody cooked, knitted, or sewed.' (spoiler: the other two are conspiracy theories and self-promotion.)

So today I will not be writing about anything I knitted. Ready?

* * * * *

At the beginning of the summer, I was taking my spinning wheel out to the porch every morning for an hour or two, so it made sense for me to bookend the season by doing that in the afternoons over the crazy-warm long weekend we just had.

(This is technically true, but what gave me the idea was not Balance but the sight of a ball of previously-spun yarn waiting in a teacup for its partner, while hunting the china cabinet for props with which to upgrade my Thanksgiving dining experience through the miracle of Presentation. And yes, I did mess up said dinner by spinning just a bit too far from the aroma of burning, but apparently not so much as to be beyond the reach of what a nice tablecloth can achieve.)

There was just one catch: I'd already taken advantage of the warm and sunny weather we had to put away all the summer furniture and cart the permanent stuff up onto the porch to be out of the worst of the snow come winter. Still. Worth a try, right?

Right. And it turns out the permanent furniture is So Much Better for spinning than the summer stuff. Those chairs are just regular patio table chairs with ugly but super squashy cushions on them, so you'd think they'd be ideal. Especially since you're not looking at the pattern when you're sitting on it. But I always had back and shoulder pain after spinning, which did not happen this weekend when leaning back in the old Adirondack/Muskoka style chair.

Which looks like this after nearly 15 years of use.

Oh dear. I so should have taken the time to restain these again over the summer, though I think the blond areas on that one arm are actual rot. I let the porch go entirely too, and it really needed floor paint.

Anyway: new favourite thing, just when the chair is falling apart and the weather is about to turn nasty. GO ME.

In good news: I got through the second lump of fiber, and didn't wait to ply the yarn:

This is the bamboo/tencel/merino blend I bought from Waterloo Wools at the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitter's Fair. It was tricky to get my wheel set up for the slipperiness of the bamboo, and I seem to have produced still more bulky yarn as a result, but hey! it's even! and it's green, and it's done.

* * * * *

There. I didn't write about anything I cooked, knitted, or sewed, and the eagle-eyed among you will have noticed I didn't really write so much about spinning either. Nope. I wrote about a CHAIR. Ha!

Thankful

2011-10-10T06:18:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to be soppy about all the things I'm thankful for (today is Thanksgiving here in Canada) even though I am thankful for a lot of very soppy things. Instead I'm going to show you pictures of the baby sweater which is

FINALLY FINISHED

and I strongly suspect has a baby to put it onto already though I have seen only signs (for example absence of said baby's expectant mother from her usual haunts) of same.

I am so thankful.

If you look really closely you can just make out the purple blanket stitch I did along one button band, where the colour changes were messy.

I checked with Louise, who made the purple yarn. She says machine wash gentle, lay flat to dry, so all I need to do now is make a care tag and, with luck, go hold a baby.

Project details here, highlights here:
Merino wool and seasilk blend yarn
Vintage Patons pattern adapted for stripes
Untold amounts of chocolate for fuel

I finished something!

2011-10-07T04:40:00.000-07:00

Actually I finished a few things this week - I know, take a moment to catch your breath, it's quite a shock isn't it - but today I am most happy skippy jumpy about my Biscotte Club handwarmers:

This is the very first time of all the clubs I've been in that I made the club yarn a priority and knit it up right away, and I like it: I'd love to keep this up but it would mean casting on the September club sock pattern and getting it done this month too if I'm to catch up. Not totally crazy when you figure how cute the socks are though.

It's difficult to take pictures of handwarmers with one hand. I should really get the tripod and timer set up on my camera but - hello, valuable knitting time?

And... the palm.

And... the other hand.

They are super squishy and soft and I'm pretty sure the pattern will go to wide release in 2012. I can definitely recommend it - it's such a cool construction and goes so fast! I've already cast on for the matching hat...

which doesn't bode well for September's socks. Oops.

Pattern: Flight of the Phoenix wristwarmers by Louise Robert
Yarn: Gobelin, 100% superwash merino, Biscotte et Cie

Have a good weekend folks - it's Thanksgiving here in Canada so you better believe you know what I'll be doing!

(yes: putting away patio furniture, raking leaves, and maybe even planting the groundcover I bought in June.)

Something to talk about

2011-10-06T05:17:00.000-07:00

Last week while having coffee with a friend, said friend (and you know who you are) asked me how I think of something to write about on this blog five times a week every week. Hello? This after I'd just talked her ear off for nearly an hour? I am chatty.

Today though I am reminded that being chatty is not everything. Though random thoughts can be entertaining, it's also good to have a theme, an insight, and/or a great picture (or any picture, sigh.) Most of all, it's helpful to be excited about the subject.

Sometimes, what I'm excited about isn't the right fit for a particular day (owing to a lack of picture, sigh), and I have to hold my breath till it is and find something else I am also excited about.

Sometimes, the other things I am excited about just aren't exciting enough.

Which is why in spite of my best effort to start typing about something else, you're now stuck reading about

My New Dress!!!!

I am kicking myself - I totally meant to take a picture of this dress when I bought it. Also of its matching cardi, and the other dress that came home with them. Yes, I know. I've done a lot of shopping this fall which is kind of ridiculous, not to mention expensive and therefore a bad habit to get into.

(in my defense, when I went into yet another shop this week to see about an incredibly cool long vesty thing I did not even try it on, having been knocked sensible by its price and also the fact that it turned out to have inset sleeves. I am a pretty much a T-shirt under jumper sort of girl.)

(but I should probably watch that store for sales, shouldn't I.)

Okay, back to the dress. The longer I drag out this mini essay, the higher the sun rises and the more likely it is that I will be able to get a picture of it even though it is way too comfortable to want to take off if I don't have to.

Oh dear, I got to my point fast, how counterproductive. Still. I never want to take this thing off! It's a sleeveless jersey knit of cotton and silk, colourblocked in a 1960s style in grey, black, and rich red, with an uneven sort hem that's notched in at least one place... nope, I'm wrong, it's just that one section along the front has a cuff added on. In spite of that, it looks very elegant, especially with the matching bolero type cardi that is also colourblocked along the lower front edge.

(I'm not wearing the matching cardi today - too dressy. Instead it's the long grey cardi I did not knit.)

Speaking of not knitting - perhaps you are wondering what this obviously not-about-knitting ramble is doing here at Hugs? Well, yes. We've got a jumper dress. We've got leggings and a long sleeve top to go under it. We've got - well, probably hikingish boots to wear with owing to the orthotics issue. And in the boots:

handknit socks.

With red in them, to match the red in the dress.

It seems I have two pairs of handknit socks with red in them, which is not enough if I'm going to sneak this dress into super frequent circulation. Clearly, more red-infused socks are indicated. And guess what? I hardly have any red-infused sock yarn! Thank goodness for this:

March 2011's club yarn, which I believe is now wound into two cakes and has moved up the priority list. Wouldn't it be awful if I had to shop for more sock yarn?

* * * * *

Okay, I'm totally going to regret this while running to my first Thing of the day but - the sun got bright enough for pictures so here you go, without further comment, because I gotta get my boots on and out the door.

Have a great day!

Spinning yarn, with a rock

2011-10-05T05:25:00.000-07:00

I think I didn't record here the amazing story of my 12-minute clothes shopping spree a few weeks ago. You know that game show Supermarket Sweeps where contestants have a set time in which to rack up the highest grocery bill? Well, I would be a cinch for that game because I always seem to notice the most expensive things first. So let me just say that the 12-minute spree was not all Win.

No, I don't mean because this smocky thing looks so drab on the hanger. Trust me, it looks fab on and: Pockets!!!

Here is the amazing:

In just 12 minutes I was not only able to

run into a dress shop recommended to me by the enviably-dressed Jocelyn at my favourite yarn store Stitch,

secure assistance in locating vesty or tunicky layering garments,

try on about 7 of same,

turn down 4 and

get back to the counter without missing so much as a sock
(mainly because those don't come off in the first place)

BUT

I also pulled off a yarny chat with the otherwise lovely woman who assisted me in spending a shocking amount of money in just 12 minutes. She knits, but she had also become recently interested in rock spindling.

Rock spindling, you ask? Yes, I did too.

It's spinning, using A Rock as the weight, and Nothing as the any other part of the process. And I swear to you that when I got home and looked up rock spindling on YouTube, I did find a video of somebody showing how you do it. I just can't seem to find that video now.

Essentially - and this has got to be spinning at its most essential and also, early - rock spindling seems to be a blend of bottom-whorl spindling and kick spindling, the idea being to spin the rock by hand or foot, then wrap the spun yarn around the rock as you go.

(I probably lost you at kick spindling, didn't I.)

Thank goodness I have a spinning wheel and a mountain of stuff that has to get done, because this sort of discovery is exactly what I could really dig myself into a hole with. Which probably makes it mean of me to mention it to anybody else. Oops!

To-ing and Fro-ing

2011-10-04T05:14:00.000-07:00

I am so undecided about these green mohair blend socks:

On Sunday I was prepping the second one to take out on my journeys for Monday and realized I not only cut off the ankle portion of the first sock way earlier than I needed to, I also made the meanest, snuggest heel flap and gusset you can imagine. Now that I know I have yarn to spare, I feel like I should rip them both back to the cuff and adjust accordingly.

On the other hand... really? Rip them out?? It's not like I don't have a zillion other things to finish.

And the mostly-finished one does fit fine in spite of the gusset issue. It could maybe - maybe - use one more stitch at the top of my foot where the sock bends, but there is plenty of flex and my foot is quite comfortable in there.

Still. Favourite colours! and it matches my green cardi so perfectly, I know I'll want to wear them a lot this winter, and they are just a bit short to sit up over my leggings. Will I enjoy them if my leg is always freezing for an inch above the cutoff?

No no, this way lies the crazy. I have three more pairs of these socks to make (admittedly in very different colours) and I can make them all much longer with a slightly fuller gusset. Maybe I can even knit a separate cuff-ish legwarmer to slip in under these particular socks. Out of a felted wool sweater sleeve, maybe?

I did take the second sock with me yesterday and as I knit I thought how nice the leftover yarn would be in a nice pair of Fair Isle mittens. So the socks are safe another day... but I have a terrible feeling I might change my mind again and rip them to fend off any further mental discussion on the point.

Knitting: so much not just a mindless, relaxing activity.

First of the month Club Excitements

2011-10-03T05:12:00.000-07:00

Normally, I open Biscotte club parcels on the first day of the month. Sometimes I lose track of the days and I am reminded of the first only by an e-mail from Biscotte with that month's pattern in it.

This time, the pattern arrived the night before.

What am I, stone? I totally opened that e-mail. Was the pattern ever cool! And when I say pattern, I mean patterns - our choice between a hat or a pair of handwarmers made using the same extremely neat-looking spiral technique I haven't done before, designed by Louise herself.

Of course I want to make both pieces, but there is only enough yarn to do one. And I don't want to buy a different colour (at least for this first run) because this, like the last, is named for a Harry Potter moment - Flight of the Phoenix.

How can I mix something like that with something all boring and ordinary?

Like this:

Ha. It's not a perfect colour match but it's better than it looks in the picture; close enough in that Not Clashy way and also, the same weight and similarly superwashy. Also known as Cascade wool I bought to make a baby surprise jacket (and probably should, now I think of it.) My plan was to make the hand warmers first, then use anything left over to start the hat so the most nonscratchy yarn is on my forehead. Anything from Biscotte is the definition of nonscratchy, but Gobelin? yuuuuum.

I still have a lot of other projects on the go but you know how sometimes you see something and you just have to cast on right away not because you need the thing or the environment you'll be working in is the right fit, but because you just can't wait to see how it's done? Well, file me behind that door.

See what I mean?

All caught up (but not in a good way)

2011-09-30T07:27:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago when I was racing to finish Carolyn's socks, this happened:

Another casualty of mobile knitting. I was not paying attention to my bus stop and jammed the needles into my bag as I got up, then zipped my purse shut on the way to the doors. Still without paying attention, apparently.

Closer investigation at home showed that the cast-on tail was caught in the zipper pull, and though it was pretty close to the first stitches and one of the three plys had come close to tearing, it was possible to wriggle it out again with some back-and-forthing of the pull. I was even able to run in that cast-on tail without anything being the worse.

Here is the solution I'm using to keep the problem from happening again:

When I'm using a purse with a zip on public transit, as opposed to an open tote in a car, I knit from a drawstring bag raised a little above zip level.

(yay! more excuses to indulge my tinyhappy addiction.)

Hope you have a good and snarl-free weekend! You know what I'll be doing: baby sweater baby sweater baby sweater.

Hey there baaaaby (cardi)

2011-09-29T03:41:00.000-07:00

Look, look!

Okay, it's not done. I still need to blanket stitch one side of the opening and block it and find buttons and sew them on. But it's sewn up! And since that took more than two hours to do (don't ask me whether or not that includes sewing the side of the sleeve to the side of the back plus picking them apart again) I felt it deserved a day all to itself.

Now that it's in one piece I think it might be a six month size - whew! - which still won't put it big enough for this baby to wear at Easter, but maybe that's just as well. Somebody might mistake him for a beautiful cuddly egg and try to put him in a basket for a table centerpiece or something.

Why toe-up socks exist

2011-09-28T04:52:00.000-07:00

For a pair of socks I am supposed to be working on only at home (and only on very short breaks from the very urgent baby sweater) because the needles are a little sharp for going out with, my mohair/Romney sweeties from Stoddart Family Farms' boot sock collection are making astounding progress. Ahem.

Look! I already have one up to the toe.

This particular skein was a little lighter than the others in my stash, the square needles had me knitting tighter, and anyway it's a bit unpredictable with this yarn how many inches you can afford to invest in the cuff - it's spun a bit thicker than the usual sock base you find from other artists, and you get a little less mileage as a result. So I really, really should have done them toe up. That way I wouldn't have wasted a bit of this incredibly delicious colourway and I would have had very warm legs this winter as well as very warm feet.

Sadly, I opted for top down, having got well and truly sick of toe-up experimentation (or rather, of too-long feet) last winter.

And you know what? I'm going to do the next pair of these socks top down too, because all I have to do is weigh the leftover ball from this one to find out how far I can take the next cuffs.

I think I'll use these scraps in some sort of Fair Isle or stripe pattern with backup leftovers for a nice abbreviated pair of matching legwarmers... a bit like shearing the sheep to make it a sweater, but the best fix I can think of.

Also, it lets me knit with this yarn a little longer. You really have to try it to believe it, and once you do I bet you'll be as hooked as I am!

Cucumber

2011-09-27T05:13:00.000-07:00

Leaving aside yesterday's moan-fest for a minute: last week when I had about an hour in which to clean the house before friends turned up for a lunch party I thought "Forget that!" and snuck off to pull out my spinning wheel.

It's probably three years ago now that I was a knitter resisting learning to spin, because it seemed like another deep pit of distraction and expense. That's sort of a deceptive impression. Spindles can be cheap, like the Ashford learner one that cost me less than $20 and works just as well as the more beautiful one I bought later whose price we will not discuss, ahem. They can even be free, as when you make them yourself. You can do that from found items, especially if you can face a bottom-whorl spindle and have the wherewithal to glue a bead to a crochet hook. And even roving costs about half what yarn does, so in a way you save money when you spin.

Of course it doesn't take long spinning with a spindle to see the upside of going veryveryfast, for which you need a wheel, and wheels are definitely not cheap. (Mine is an Ashford Joy, purchased used - it was still pricey, and still worth every penny to me.) Plus, even with a wheel it takes time to spin yarn, after which you need to do something with it or it will just take up space in your stash.

It's worth noting too that the low pricing of roving might tempt you to buy twice as much of it. Not that we know anybody who does that. (That's the new Cool Cucumber I bought from Waterloo Wools at the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitter's Fair up there, by the way.)

So as I say - I was kind of right to avoid learning to spin. But on the upside, it is an incredibly peaceful art that more than gives back what you put into it. It's a good thing to do to calm down out of the flurry of guest-anticipation and be ready to enjoy your visit. Especially if your guests are the sort who aren't going to mind if you pull the wheel out again after lunch and fuss over your bamboo blend fiber while you chat.

I don't know how this is going to look plied; the singleton is super fat, and super overspun. But it was ever so nice in my hands and I think it will feel nice on somebody's neck or head... eventually.

Slow progress

2011-09-26T04:31:00.000-07:00

For a couple of weeks now I've been watching my pile of Works In Progress not shrink. This is mostly because my usual quantity of free time has shrunk - dramatically - but also because when I get free time I'm so wiped out I just collapse. Some days even my fingers are too tired to knit. It's hooooorrible.

Last night even, I went to a burger place with friends and got barstool seating in front of a window. There I was, a sock untouched in my purse, and there - outside at a cafe table enjoying the evening air - was another knitter working contentedly away at a lace scarf.

(of course I ate fast so I could go and say hi. what am I, made of stone?)

However, I did make progress on the baby sweater. I picked it up every time I sat down, and I came up with excuses to sit down so I could pick it up, and I'm nearly finished the yoke. I might actually cast off today, leaving only the hours and hours of finishing and button-hunting to do.

Also: I gave Carolyn her sleep socks. I think she liked them.

Looking back over the last little while I think I see where I've been going wrong. Instead of spending as much time as possible at home ignoring the dust like usual, I've been out clothes-shopping and in paying attention to dust and laundry and organization generally. I've caught myself twice now wondering whether I'll be able to cram in washing the shower curtain liner before I need to go out - or use the shower - again.

I'll just have to come to my senses, because I surely have enough clothes by now and I know from experience that all those house things go and get dirty again a couple of days later.

(Not like shawls or hats or scarves that keep being around even after you've knit three more, ahem.)

Babies, and knitting for same

2011-09-23T04:38:00.000-07:00

Lookit:

I know, it's just a strip of stripies. But it's also the second of two fronts for a certain baby cardi, and the last piece to finish before I can put all the pieces onto one needle to knit a yoke. (and then I have to seam, and blanket stitch the one side where the colour change loops won't be tucked into the seam because they are big enough for a baby-sized finger to get caught in, and find buttons, oh help!)

And even this piece isn't off the needles yet. The Goal That Must Not Be Named was to have the lot onto its yoke by the end of last Sunday, so this should give you a pretty good idea of how limited my knitting time is these days. Something's gotta change, that's all there is to it.

In only partially related news, I was over at Trish's house yesterday and congratulating her (yes, that's the word I'm going to use, never mind if my voice was a bit whiny) on having her baby gift done already while noting that there is another baby due for arrival in the vicinity in January for whom I will be very much remiss if I am not knitting something soon. And I am getting frankly a bit cardi phobic, so it isn't gonna be that.

Trish's knit was a blanket, and she's done another for another baby (so many babies, I love it!) and she showed me both.

I think I wanna do a blankie for the next baby. Sooooo much less stress about whether it will still fit when you hand it over!

If I did lace, I think I'd do Anne Hanson's Cradle Me. But maybe colourblocks from Churchmouse Yarns would be good too. Or maybe I should just Stop Thinking and get on with my knitting.

Have a good weekend everybody - and wish me luck for a productive one!

It's hip to be square

2011-09-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

You may recall my double pointed needle crisis, but I'll recap: I've only got enough to have two pairs of socks in progress at once and apparently I have a deep-seated need to work on a lot more socks than that. Cue the shopping bells.

Sadly, it turns out that tiny dpns were not a popular item for venders to bring to the Knitter's Fair. But Serenity Knits had a few, and the ones in the size I needed were square, by Kollage.

You'll see from the link above that knitters are encouraged, as indeed I was, to be alert to any gauge changes caused by the shift to a square needle from round. A lot of people have to go up a size to make gauge, but you can't really know till you start knitting; I did the above-pictured gauge swatch which was perfect only to find mid-sock that I'm cramming slightly more stitches into each inch than usual.

I'm not really bothered by this. It's not enough to make a big difference in fit anyway, but to be on the safe side I'll be reserving these for slightly heavier sock yarn because the pattern I use for them is a bit looser to start with.

The thing that actually worried me when I bought the needles was whether my skin would react badly to the metal. I do well with Addis, but every other metal needle I've tried (and I think I've covered them all) make my hands unpleasantly tingly after a while. Thankfully: these ones are not every other. They not only look very pretty, they feel great.

And that is the real point of square needles - they feel great! The word is that if you have arthritis or other problems like carpal tunnel, square needles feel better because you can grip them more easily. It's absolutely true, for me in any case. My right wrist is often very sore after a lot of knitting but not with these. I love them and almost wish I had gone with my initial gut instinct to buy four sets instead of the two I brought home.

Almost, because...

these babies are sharp.

And boy do I mean sharp!! You know how lace tip needles are pointy? Well, these are pointier. Pointy to the extent that they could do real harm in a collision between knitter and Any Other Object. Which is not a problem if the knitter is stationary, but is a big problem for me. After all, I'm already having safety issues with dpns on the go.

So the squares stay home unless I'm meeting a friend for coffee and not knitting en route.

And when I'm not working with them they stay sheathed. Compared to the joy they bring, it's definitely not a lot of trouble to take.

Orthoticky shoes for handknit socks

2011-09-21T07:01:00.000-07:00

The nasty Achilles tendon issue that befell me last September is back again, leaving me with no choice but to go shoe shopping. Ahem.

(no, really: I've been experimenting, and even an hour's outing with the wrong shoe seems to make the problem exponentially worse. I'm beginning to lose hope of ever wearing a heel again! which would be horrible if it didn't leave me with more opportunities to wear socks of my own making.)

So off I went a week or two ago with a pair of handknit socks in my current Mary Janes to find a pair that were more substantial-looking and incidentally offered a lot more arch support.

The shoe salesman kinda freaked out about the socks, which he felt were very bright. I must be losing perspective because I thought they were pretty subtle - Vesper 4-stripers in pale pink, soft grey, bright blue and cream. I guess he's used to black or navy or brown, no stripes?

We tried on Birkenstock Mary Janes, and Clarks Mary Janes, and a ton of others whose names I don't remember, plus some boots, and my toes and arch were unquestionably happiest in a pair of Keene Mary Janes which I find ironic for a couple of reasons.

One, it was the mostly archless Keene waterproof sandals I wore in the summer that seem to have caused the trouble in the first place, and two, these Mary Janes were way, WAY less expensive than any others we tried. Usually I have an unfortunately homing tendency toward the most expensive option.

I've been wearing the new shoes every since and they are working wonders on my leg. They have a real buckle, not a Velcro strap, so they are much kinder to my handknit socks. But hooo.

Nelly.

Are they stinky!

I don't know what it is about the synthetic parts in these babies but if you're going to a place where you'll be expected to take your shoes off at the door (and want to be invited back), you'll do as I do, bad tendon or not, and wear something else.

And now if you'll excuse me I gotta go put my leg on a heating pad 'cause I just did that.

(should I file this story under What Price Beauty?)

The fall cardi: copout edition

2011-09-20T05:22:00.000-07:00

My capacity for stressing myself out knows no bounds, honestly. First I came up with the idea for a fall cardi knitalong last spring so as to have a fighting chance at a new cardi this fall, and then I started knitting shawls and socks instead till - well. If you live in a part of North America where seasons have significant shifts, you'll probably have noticed one is happening right now. I have noticed because I'm cold a lot more often than I was in July.

And the Fair Isle sweater I started last winter is almost but not quite ready for the yoke.

And my beautiful cardi, for which I made a matching shawl in anticipation, is still missing the top of its back, two sleeves, and all its finishing.

And even the baby cardi that's meant for a baby boy arriving possibly as soon as next week still has a front panel and yoke to go. (plus, it's mostly bamboo. what was I thinking?)

Meanwhile, all I seem to be able to get my hands on are nice compact sock projects because I'm not getting a second to sit on the sofa with any of those bigger brain-requiring projects.

Yesterday I had a sudden inspiration and spent one hour - you read that right - conjuring not one but two perfectly fitted 100% wool cardigans for less than the price of the yarn for one. Yes! And how you may ask did I achieve such a magical transformation in the warmth potential of my wardrobe?

Three words: discount department store. In Canada: 'Winners'. In the US: 'Marshalls'.

This beauty is keeping me warm as I type.

Okay, I know it looks a bit blah but imagine how much more so it would be on your needles! I'm guessing it'd take 3.0mm plus forever because it falls to about 3 inches above my knees. You would never knit this sweater, and neither would I, because it is boring charcoal grey and has nothing to break up the stocking stitch. But you would wear it because it is warm and soft and sleek and will go with everything from black to screaming pink. Also, surprisingly flattering. I know. It looks like nothing on the hanger, but on a body: pretty fab.

If only it had pockets.

This one is too cool for my Mary Janes (I tried, oh how I tried.) And you would never knit it either. You know why? Because it is mostly boiled wool, cut up and sewn together. Stitches got picked up for the cuffs and collar and button band in a thick and thin yarn also used for the blanket stitch edges.

(tip: the raw edge has been folded to the wrong side, and then secured by the blanket stitching for a polished finish.)

Also: it is black. A plain black cardi is a total bonus in your wardrobe but in your knitting bag? This way leads to blindness. Or at the very least madness because you cannot fail to notice all the fabulous colours available to knitters these days.

Conclusion: go me! now I can knit without freezing, and with luck I'll have those sweaters done by First Snow.

Hazardous when knitting

2011-09-19T05:26:00.000-07:00

Hooooo boy - another week with downtown driving in it. And if I could see my way to do it - I do mean literally, if I could see in advance whether I can make a left where and when I want to - I would be driving downtown this afternoon as well. So I guess I'm getting used to the whole thing.

Meanwhile, it's a lot of public transit to boot and now that I'm doing it so much more I can see where it's a problem. Formerly, I could knit socks on a bus, effortlessly. I'd knit at the bus stop, fold the sock so the needles were all lined up nicely when I saw the bus coming, hold all five needles plus the sock in my left hand against my body so as not to poke anybody while getting on the bus, then resume knitting as soon as I sat down. Ditto on the subway.

All was well at first. One bus driver I kept getting for one particular run always calls out "Don't forget your purse or bag!" on arrival at the subway, the end of his line. Last time, he called out "Don't forget your purse, or your bag, or your SOCK!"

Then one day I was getting on the subway - literally with one foot almost on the car floor - when I saw my old neighbour Tony getting out of the subway right beside me. Our greeting went like this:

"Hey! Tony!"

"Mary!!"

(unexpected Tony-initiated hug at brink of subway door)

(near stabbing of Tony)

This made me think that maybe I should be putting my needles away entirely, not just holding them in one hand. Or maybe I should always wear one of my skirts with the insanely huge pockets so as to jam the needles right out of harm's way.

But I haven't done it yet, and the other day things got worse. I was taking the very long trip from a bus at a busy station to the far-away platform and just as I was running down the last of the steps to grab the train waiting in the station - I must have let my arm free from its hand-against-body position - my needles caught somebody else's scarf. A somebody else who was running in the opposite direction.

Quick reflexes allowed me to tilt my hand and release the fabric while merely missing my train. I don't know what happened to the scarf and I can only hope it wasn't anything bad.

Still. What if it had been somebody's hand? What if I'd actually pulled that girl down the stairs with me? I gotta stop the insanity.

I might even have to find something else to knit on public transit. Something I could do on nice safe circular needles. Like... a hat... or maybe a nice handspun cowl.

Otherwise I might as well be driving, you know?