Green Socks

I'm making some socks. And they're green. As students in my library would say, "I know, right?"

Now that you've recovered, I can give you a few more details. I'm making these for an upcoming hiking trip that Jeff and I will be taking with my brother. I didn't know Cascade made sock yarn (how didn't I know this?), but The Knitting Nest had a whole bunch of this green. It knits up wonderfully -- very sturdy -- perfect for hiking. Plus it's put up in 437 yd. hanks, so plenty of yarn for a lengthy pair of manly socks. AND it was only $12.00 What's not to like? This colorway is known as Mossy Rock. I like to think it's named after a Tacoma Public Utilities park where my family spent a very soggy Memorial Day weekend in the mid-1970s. I remember it raining a lot, catching tadpoles and garter snakes and keeping them in coffee cans, and laughing hilariously when I heard my mom's friend Gerri uttering the phrase "crap-ola" while playing cards.

I'm using the six-stitch pattern dimensions from Charlene Schurch's More Sensational Knitted Socks, but I'm not following a particular pattern. I did a 24 stitch magic toe cast-on, increased to 72 stitches (my standard circumference), then started a 4x2 ribbing across the instep. I didn't want to work a short row heel, so I'm doing a heel flap where the flap is actually on the sole. It worked pretty well. I did a slip-stitch heel for reinforcement purposes, but I don't know that it's noticeable. I wanted to put these cool blast-from-the-past stripes in with some leftover KnitPicks Essential that I had, but I made the cuff too short, so what you see here is more than is what is on the needle now. I had to do some ripping back. But overall, I'm pleased.

I need to get this pair done before I leave next Saturday.

Herz Broken

Do you remember the third Star Trek movie? It was the one between Star Trek II, where Kirk yells the immortal "Khaaaaaaaaan!" and the fourth one where they go back in time to San Francisco to save the whales. I thought so -- hardly anyone remembers it. One of the plot points involves getting Spock's soul out of Dr. McCoy and re-implanting it in Spock's body during a very rare and dangerous Vulcan ritual. The point of all this is the outfit Spock wears during this process. You see, I just made a cabled version of it.

Get a load of those shoulders. Yep -- I made that. I read some time ago that when looking at the modeled shots of knitted objects, one should pay special attention to the parts of the garment you can't see in the photos. In the photos for the Herz & Baum Vest in Guy Knits, the model is always wearing a jacket over the vest. You cannot see what the armholes look like. That's because, unless you're a linebacker, these armholes are going to stick out. I mean really stick out. Ridiculously far.

I'm not sure what to do at this point. I think I may just chalk this up to experience -- knit and learn. I put a LOT of work into this, but I'm not going to wear it if I'm going to look like a clown -- or a Vulcan going through fal-tor-pan. If anyone has any ideas -- besides donating this to Home for the Criminally Broad-Shouldered, please let me know.

To help get my mind off this colossal disappointment, I buckled down and finished the Sailor's Rib Socks that I made out of Malabrigo. Beautiful color, perfect match of yarn pattern to stitch pattern, and they fit wonderfully. So there.

Plus, I've got in mind another pair of socks that I want to knit for an upcoming special milestone. I'll share some of it, but I think I'll keep some of it back as a surprise. We'll see...

Steekcam

I know y'all must get tired of hearing about these damned steeks. I am too. So they are now gone. Snipped, cut and forever divided.

I started the final process yesterday with Jene. She took a few whacks at the neck steek and did a great job. Then we went and had awesome hot and sour soup at the Bamboo Garden, which I can definitely recommend. Today, I finished up at The Knitting Nest where Julia snipped a few stitches, too. Here she is in action. Look at that steady hand!






When Staci clomped in, I got her to shoot a little video of steek cutting with my point-n-shoot camera. Listen to Staci's and my witty observations as you watch the horror that occurs when scissors meet knitted fabric. Seriously, folks. Just knit up a swatch, make a crochet steek somehwere in the middle of it, and then cut it in half. It will work, it will hold, and then when you need to apply this to real knitting life, you won't be scared. Well, you'll still be scared, but at least you won't faint. One hopes.

I started the neck band at the shop and then finished it when I got home. There's a little weirdness going on at the bottom of the neck where the decreases bring things to a point. I may have to do some structural weaving behind it to make it all work. It's just a little gappy.

I tried it on at the shop, and much as I expected, I looked rather obscene and Brüno-esque in it. Those of you who were at The Knitting Nest are probably wishing you could un-see that. Definitely not a pretty sight. The effect brought to mind a giant green braided sausage. But it's been soaked and stretched and will soon be ready to go. I promise a modeled shot once it's dry.

A Call to Armholes

I didn't realize it until just now, but my last post was my 200th. Kind of hard to believe.

I'm still waiting to cut the neck steek, but I had a bit of time on my hands and I'm itching to get this thing done. I went ahead and added one of the armhole bands. I was anxious to see how the crocheted steek would hold during the process since I would have to pick up and knit just two stitches over from the crochet chain. No problems that I could see. It went fast, even if it was uncomfortable knitting with this thing on my lap while it was 100+ degrees outside.

While knitting, I watched a strange little movie called Fido. It's about an alternative 1950's America in which, after the end of a worldwide zombie war, zombies are used as personal servants. Quite strange and quirky -- kind of Night of the Living Dead meets Pleasantville. The 50s-ness is awesome. It's a little gory, but not as much as your average zombie movie.

But I digress. The picture on the left shows the inside of the armhole. The lighter color yarn is what I used to make the crochet chains between which the steek was cut. It's bunched up in a few places -- I think that's where I skipped a few stitches to make the number come out even around the armhole. Originally, I was thinking I would need to tack this down in some fashion, but it sees to naturally fold flat -- possibly because I picked up the stitches for the armhole band along a purl gutter in the pattern. I'm not sure if that was the intent, but it seems to have worked for me.

Although this looks like regular 2x2 ribbing, there are actually two small sections that for a few rounds are 3x3. Then that is decreased back to 2x2. These are are both down toward the bottom of the armpit. Why would you do that? Perhaps to give some ease or keep something from puckering, but it's just four stitches decreased over a total of 160. Could it really matter? Click on the top picture and see the note at Flickr that shows where this occurs. Go ahead -- live on the wild side.

A Steek, Well Done

If I say so myself. No problems at all. There are two little strings at the cast on edge, but, as I hoped they would, they just tightened into the crochet stitch above when I gave them a little tug. Whew!

I know that some people expressed interest in watching this from the knitter's version of an operating theater, but I just couldn't wait. I wanted to try one of the armholes first -- for some reason, that seemed "safer" than cutting the neck. Since it's evening, I couldn't get enough good light for a video from my point-and-shoot camera, but there are still two steeks to go.

Really, people, you should try this. It's kind of fun. Like you're getting away with something. And I have -- so far!

Steeks and Geeks

I decided to go with the 3-needle bindoff for the shoulders of the Herz & Baum Vest, which you can see to the right. It was just a matter of using a set-up row to cast of the stitches that wouldnt' be included in the shoulder seems (paying careful attention to the math), and then doing the bind-off. It's not super-tidy, but it does offer the advantage of making the patterns on the front and back meet perfectly. If I'd sewn these seems, I'd have had to play that game where you're always half a stitch off. That would have made my brain hurt. No brain pain for me! It looks like a corner on the left side of the bindoff, but there are actually four cast-of stitches across there for the armhole steeks.

Now, to the steeks. You know how you read the pattern instructions carefully, and then get started, and then, three weeks later when you actually get to some important new structure (like a steek), you think you know all that already? Can you imagine the problems this might cause? I thought so. I forgot that the instructions required twisting two rows in the steek so that the crochet run through those rows would be tighter. This method went up the center of a column of stitches, and not across the halves of two neighboring columns. Not so stable without twisted stitches. Well, that was out -- maybe I could try it without the twisted stitches, but I was scared. Then I thought, "No problem, I'll just use Eunny Jang's instructions for crocheted steeks, which I'd used before on a tea cozy." But that method requires an odd number of steek stitches. Grrr...

So I waited all week until I could consult with the geniuses at knitting. One option we came up with was unbinding the bindoff, then laddering the two rows down and twisting them with a crochet hook and then rebinding off. Tedious, but do-able. Then, knitting genius Staci pointed out that if I just turned the vest (and that frown) upside down, I'd have an odd number of stitches across the steek -- 4 would become 3. So simple, so easy. All I had to do was start the crochet chain at the opposite end of the steek I'd planned. The picture to the right shows in red the "V"s of the three stitch rows (with a little left over on each side. The blue lines show the neighboring halves of stitches that will be bound together by the crochet chain, and the green dotted line shows where the final act will take place.

I've begun the chain already. I was going to use the same yarn, but then I chickened out and found some similar Cascade 220 green yarn (I know you're shocked that I had this), and got started. Ideally, I'd have a little more wiggle room. When I'm done crocheting each side, I'll have a knit and a purl stitch left to fold under. I'm hoping this will give me enough sturdiness for picking up the stitches necessary for the neck and armhole bands. I'm knitting the chain fairly tightly with a pretty small hook, so I think I'm good.

If I can get up the nerve, I might post a video of the slicing. Don't worry, Jene, I'll be sure and save some for you to see live and in person.

Then Refresh His Heart

A few years ago, the men's chorus I sing with performed Brahms' Alto Rhapsody with Rose Taylor. It was a totally enjoyable experience, my first with singing Romantic music like this. Kind of hard to describe -- bleak, yet uplifting at the same time. I only remember snatches of the German lyrics, but as I've been working on this Herz & Baum vest, the phrase so erquicke sein Herz has been going through my mind -- "then refresh his heart."

And I suppose I have been a bit refreshed. This vest languished for a short while, but I got back up to speed recently and today I finished the last of the 24 neck decreases which take place every third round. I have only a few more rows to go until I've got the sleeve holes knit to the requisite length. Even then, I might add a bit more. Most of my height manifests itself in my torso, so I want to make sure this is long enough.

It's clear from the instructions that I am to bind off once I get to the top and then sew the shoulder seams after cutting the steeks. But I'm wondering if it would be possible to bind off just the stitches along the back of the neck during the last round, and then use a 3-needle bindoff on the live stitches between the back and front. Would that work? Which would provide a firmer shoulder seam -- 3-needle bind off or sewing up after a regular bindoff? Right now I'm leaning toward seaming, but it's not going to be easy with all these cables...

On an unrelated note, I somtimes get asked about the title of my blog. It comes from the lyrics in the number Some People from what is arguably the best Broadway musical ever, Gypsy. Just a relevant sample:

Some people can get a thrill
knitting sweaters and sitting still.
That's okay for some people
who don't know they're alive.

Despite the fact that these lyrics knock knitting, this really is a great musical. The original movie version with Rosalind Russel is bland. The made-for-TV version with Bette Midler is better. But nothing beats the original Broadway production with Ethel Merman. Gypsy is 50 this year, and they've just released an anniversary version of the original cast album. If you've never seen this musical, do so. And if I haven't convinced you, listen to this review that aired on Fresh Air a few weeks ago.

Take From Me My Lace

Today, I got to take Franklin Habit's lace knitting class at The Knitting Nest. So cool. I was fortunate to get to see him a little over a year ago when he came to Austin for his 1,000 knitters project, and it was good to see him again.

I'd dabbled in lace a bit -- see this pair of socks and this baby blanket -- but didn't have much of a context for it. No "big picture," if you will. This class helped with that. Franklin covered the basics and the ground rules -- and then told us when we could break them. I found his presentation of three different schools of lace knitting (Orenburg, Shetland and Estonian), intriguing from a history point of view. He also talked about how shawls in each of these traditions are constructed. He passed around pictures and examples from his own knitting. I even got to try on his 1840 Nightcap! Sadly, I didn't get to keep it. But it did fit my ginormous head.

While he talked, we got to work on a scarf pattern that he had created. The pattern (blurred by me) and swatch, along with a few of my notes, are to the left. It wasn't so complicated that we couldn't follow the chart while he talked. And I really liked that he introduced us to the pattern, but didn't read us through the whole thing. Franklin is a natural teacher and it was a real treat to see him in action. Oh -- and on the flip side of the pattern, there was a bibliography of essential lace knitting books. Be still my librarian heart!

If you have a chance to take this class, do so. I suspect even if you know quite a bit about lace knitting, you'll learn a thing or two. And that's always good. Thanks, as always, to the Nest for bringing him here. And thanks, Franklin!

Busting Out All Over

June's here. I feel like knitting, but it's awfully hot for it. Especially with this bulletproof wad of wool on your lap. Even the AC blasting doesn't help. This thing is getting seriously hot. I didn't knit on it at all this week. I was so excited to finally get to the steeks, but a few rows in, I kind of lost my mojo.I'm a little paranoid that I'm not doing the decreases correctly. The pattern doesn't say specifically where to make them. but based on the pattern the steeks grew out of, I think I've got something workable and mostly symmetrical.

It's a little hard to describe, but working out from all the edges of all three steeks I've got a purl, a knit, and then another knit row where the decreases are worked. If you know what you're looking for, you can kind of see this at top center of the picture at the top of this post, near the orange stitch marker. I've consulted with knitters more knowledgeable than myself, and they've given me the go ahead. But as soon as I got it, I stopped. I'm going to try and get back to it today before I totally lose my momentum on this.

Unlike the vest, I'm going gangbusters on the Sailor's Rib Socks. I finished knitting the first one last night and wove in the ends this morning. I cast on the second one right away (sock knitters know why), but it took me three tries. I kept making dumb little cast-on mistakes. That's what I get for trying to knit while watching mindless TV. The mindlessness is contagious.

I think I've gotten closer to balancing the sock pattern to yarn color ratio than I have with previous pairs. The striping is quite subtle and doesn't fight the ribbing pattern at all. I've yet to get a picture that properly represents the deep purpleness of this Malabrigo sock yarn. I've never been a huge purple fan, but this I like.

So I'll be plugging away at these two projects while I eagerly await the weekend. I've never taken a knitting class in my life. I'm pretty comfortable with learning from books (a fortunate occupational hazard), and I'm blessed to know several very talented knitters. So I'm a little nervous, but very excited, to be taking a lace knitting class that will be taught at the Knitting Nest on Saturday by Franklin Habit. It's going to be a blast!

"Say, Uncle...."

Before I get to the main point of this post, I just had to share this picture I took with my phone Saturday morning. My knitting group got together as we often do of a Saturday morn, and we took the occasion to celebrate a couple of recent birthdays amongst us. The lovely tableful of haute cuisine before me just begged to be photographed. I think I was the only person who partook of all the delicacies. Definitely not the sort of thing one should do every day...

Last night, Jeff and I had my sister's children at the house for a sleepover. We had a blast. We went out for burgers, played Sorry!, watched a DVD, laughed, and stayed up way past all of our bedtimes. But, the most fun I had was teaching my niece and nephew how to knit!

For some reason, when I asked them if they wanted me to show them how, they said yes. I guess I finally wore them down.



And they took to it rather well, if I say so myself. I tried for a minimalist approach. I cast on for them and did the first row, showed them how, and then let them do their own thing, stepping in from time to time when questions were asked. True to their personalities, Christopher became very focused and concentrated on nothing else while Kathleen put hers down after a few minutes, but came back to it later. I was impressed with her stick-to-it-ness. He, being a leftie, gravitated to continental knitting, while Kathleen preferred to throw.

It was interesting seeing them make the same mistakes I made when I started knitting at the grand old age of 39. Holding the needles proved a challenge, like they did with me, and, much like their uncle, they ended up with several extra stitches at the end of a few rows. But what great jobs they did! When I got up this morning, they were both knitting. (I think I'm getting choked up...)

They wanted to take their knitting home when their mom came to pick them up this morning, but she reminded them that there would be no one there to help them if they got seriously messed up. So they decided to leave their projects here for the next time they come over. Now I need to come up with lesson two...

Austin Harlotry

I heard Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, the famous knitter and knitting writer also known as The Yarn Harlot, speak at Book People in Austin this evening. She was genius, of course. Despite getting over a cold, a cross-country flight and the trauma of getting Sock Summit 2009 registration up and running. I wouldn't have been able to do it.

The event began at 7:00. I got there at 6:30, and it was already standing room only. They had also already sold out of her newest book, so I bought a copy of Knitting Rules! for her to sign. I ran into and stood by several knitting friends, including Abbe, Stephanie, Julia, Amanda, Christina and Stacey. I stood behind some bookshelves that I could kind of lean on while still having a good vantage point. I don't think Book People realized how many people were going to be there...

She was funny, of course. I can't remember everything she discussed, but it ranged from dumb things non-knitters say in the presence of knitters, to how knitting changes your brain (for the better, I should note), to how knitters are so hard to pin down demographically. I'm kind of glad she didn't read directly from her book. Not that I wouldn't have wanted to hear from her book, it's just that, well, I can read myself, you know? I appreciate authors who appreciate that.

She did disclose something interesting about the Sock Summit 2009 registration earlier this week in response to a question from the audience. The Sock Summit had a mailing list of 12,000 people, and typically, 10% of those on a mailing list will actually register and/or attend a meeting like this. Stephanie and Amy told the IT guys they needed a server that would handle 100% -- and just to be safe, 200% of that number. The IT guys thought they were nuts, but assured the organizers that they server could handle 24,000 registrants at once. At 10:00am Tuesday, 35,000 people hit the server. That's close to 300% of the people on their mailing list. How could anyone have prepared for that?

She was very gracious when I got to talk to her. I told her to hang in there and that I was very excited about the Summit. Stephie took a great picture of the two of us holding each other's socks, and she said she'd see me in Portland. She was really very nice. I'm glad I got to meet her.

The sock she's holding is a project I started this morning so I'd have something to take a picture of and possibly work on during her talk -- although that didn't really happen. The yarn is a beautiful Malabrigo sock yarn in the colorway Cote d'Azur, and the pattern I'm using is a five-stitch sock pattern in sailor's rib from Charlene Schurch's More Sensational Knitted Socks. More about that later...

Postscript: Be sure to check out Stephi's photos of the event over at Flickr. Way better than mine!

Big Sock Candy Mountain

I'm headed to the history-making Sock Summit 2009 in Portland this coming August. It wasn't easy, but I'm in.

Registration was slated to begin at 12:00pm central time. On the dot, I tried to register. And tried. And tried. I got a call from Janelle in Pennsylvania, my sock knitting companion for this event. We were having the same issues. Seems their registration servers were getting slammed. Finally, I got a page with the registration button on it at 12:31. The things is, according to the registration rules, once you start, you've got 15 minutes to get registered and paid, otherwise you're dropped from the classes you signed up for. Way tougher than at the college where I work! I finished with 1:24 to spare.

And what's more, I got all my top choices! Here's my class schedule:

• Thursday, August 6th: Vintage Socks - Old Tricks for New Socks taught by Nancy Bush (6 hour class)
  
• Friday, August 7th: Special Stitches for Special Handpainted Yarns for Special Socks taught by Merike Saarniit (3 hour class)
  
• Saturday, August 8th: Hip Hems for Him and Her taught by Stephen Houghton (3 hour class)
  
• Saturday, August 8th: Hizsocks, Making Socks Manly taught by Stephen Houghton (3 hour class)
  
• Sunday, August 9th: Knitting Happily Ever After - Ergonomics for Knitters taught by Carson Demers (3 hours class)
  

There are other events that I'll be attending as well, including an opening reception, a sock hop, and a panel of luminaries that will include Cat Bordhi, Nancy Bush, Lucy Neatby, Meg Swansen, Barbara Walker and more! Plus a whole exhibit hall filled with socky goodness.

Can't wait!

Big Bend

We're back safe and sound. I'm sure you've all been waiting for this with bated breath -- a picture of the vicious beast that we encountered on the Boot Canyon Trail in Big Bend National Park.

Here's how it happened. We were about 4.5 miles into what turned out to be a 13.5 mile hike through the high Chisos Mountains. A hiker headed in the opposite direction on the Boot Canyon Trail said there was a bear up ahead. So we carefully kept our eyes open, expecting to see a bear off on a hillside somewhere. We passed another gentleman who had been camping in the area -- he was looking for the bear, too, having been alerted by the other guy. We just kept walking along, having just passed an old corral, when...

ROAR! It was about 15 feet up a tree right next to the trail, and it wasn't interested in letting anyone walk nearby. We watched for a few minutes (the two of us, the camper, and the first guy, who ran back at the sound), and heard it making some strange guttural sounds and every once in a while chomping its teeth. We were very nervous about cubs being nearby, but we couldn't see any. This was definitely a full-grown bear. I couldn't get a good picture so I went back to the corral and down a little hill to see if I could get a better view -- the picture above was the best I could get. One more load roar, this one complete with projectile bear saliva, convinced me that our hiking plans had changed. So we had to make a bit of a detour. Luckily, it only involved a short backtrack, but it did ultimately add a mile and a half to our day's walk.

Later, we ran into a hiker near the South Rim that we had passed on the trail before the bear encounter. He ran into the same bear, but sat down a ways off and waited it out. Eventually, it climbed down and ambled off. Hearing this, we figured we could hike back along that trail, and before we knew it, we were under the very tree where it had been earlier. No sign of the bear anywhere, except this.

The rest of the trip was much less eventful, but no less interesting. A selection of pictures from the trip can be found here -- or in a slideshow format. We got to see large parts of the park that we didn't visit last time we were there. And it was a perfect time to go -- right at the end of their busy season. It was getting hot along the river, but still quite pleasantly cool in the mountains. And we went on several hikes and side trips where we didn't see a single soul.

If you like visiting national parks, definitely give this one a try. It's unique. We won't wait so long before we go back again.

Oh, and because this is a knitting blog, I must report that I did some knitting.

Vest Out West

Finally figured out a wireless connection in the park. Today, we walked 13.5 miles and several thousand feet in elevation. But the most exciting thing that happened today? Getting surprised by a very snarly black bear on the trail! We're both intact although still a little shaken...

Traveling Stitch

Not much to report this week. Steady progress continues on the Herz & Baum vest. I've made a few mistakes, but I caught them early and was able to fix them quickly with my cool green combination crochet hook / cable needle that I got at The Knitting Nest. Quite the lifesaver! It's in that cool anodized aluminum that I always associate with knitting needles and a set of tumblers that my grandma used to have. They looked kind of like these.

Went to knitting this morning. There were only four of us, but we had a grand time. While we were there, it started just dumping rain. Man, did we need it. And now I don't have to mow the lawn today. Woo-hoo!

As you can see, the vest continues. I'm keeping up with my spreadsheet, which hasn't been as difficult as I'd first imagined. I would never have been able to keep track of my progress and where I'm supposed to go next without it.

Monday, Jeff and I head west for a brief vacation in the lovely Chisos Mountains of Big Bend National Park. I first visited here 19 years ago (!) and haven't been there in well over 10 years. It's a long day's drive, but worth it. Big Bend is one of those national parks that doesn't get loved to death like Yosemite or Yellowstone. It's not on the way to any place that a lot of people want to visit -- you've got to want to go there. I'm going to take the vest and try to make some major progress on it. I should have plenty of time and few distractions. I'll try to post some pictures from the road, but this area of the country has sparse to non-existent cell coverage. Just lots of silence -- nice, no?

After a long semester, I'm really looking forward to this.

Time Whiner Cable

I love knitting cables. Especially cables involving only two stitches -- so easy to do without a separate cable needles. I love seeing the little lines twist and weave themselves over and under their neighbors into beautiful patterns. It's quite magical.

But it takes freakin' forever. The circumference of this sweater is 304 stitches, which is quite a few, but I don't think it's the number of stitches slowing me down, it's the unevenness of complexity amongst the cable charts and the fact that they will never line up(see previous post). No single round on this entire sweater (besides the waist, neck and arm bands) is identical. I haven't even finished one repeat of the largest chart yet.

One row might have only a few cables in each chart with many purls and ktbls, making the round fly by in only 15 minutes. The next round might take an hour as I try to read the charts, twisting stitches constantly, and getting distracted by podcasts/music/TV. I'm not complaining. Okay, I am complaining -- but I complain because I love. This is turning out quite nicely so far. I would estimate that I'm about 1/4 of the way to where the neck steek begins. Then things should really get interesting!

It's getting large enough that it's making me sweat while I knit it. Our heat index is in the upper 90s, today, and I have to take breaks every once in a while even though the AC is blasting. I should still be working on this when Jeff and I head out to Big Bend National Park for several days of hiking and general end-of-the-semester decompression -- oh, and knitting. I just checked their forecast, and it looks like the high Wednesday (about a week before we'll get there), the high is predicted to be 108. Woo-hoo!

To Infinity and Beyond

Okay, I'm exaggerating -- but only a little. Let me explain...

To the right, you see the beginning of the Herz & Baum Vest. The pattern was originally printed in Knitters magazine in the winter of 1993, and reprinted in the book Guy Knits released last year. No one in Ravelry has tackled this (or at least no one has fessed up to it), and I can only find one archived mention of someone's stab at it back in 1998. A saner knitter would have taken note of the lack of traffic.

Don't get me wrong. The pattern is quite striking. I even began to see the little hearts and trees that are the pattern's namesakes while poring over the charts this afternoon. But as I looked at the charts, I started getting nervous when I realized that the patterns never seemed to line up and end on a common row. I went to a little calculator on the internet to try and figure out the least common multiple of 4 (chart A), 8 (chart D), 18 (chart C) and 26 (chart E). Do you know what that is?

Nine hundred and thirty-six. This vest is only about 150 rows long, if that. I'd have to knit this for the Jolly Green Giant for all these charts to realign at a common starting point! This is going to be a row-counting exercise like no other. So, I need to figure out a way to follow my progress..

This is what I came up with. I used Excel to make a chart that groups all the ranges of rows for each chart pattern surrounded by bold borders. So now, in theory, I can start at the bottom, and each time I've finished a row, I can cross it off the list. As I work my way up, I should be able to tell at any given time which row I'm on. That's what I'm hoping, anyway. As you can see, I've completed the first 4 rows. Woo-hoo! Of course, row 5 is where things start getting interesting...

And just to keep things even more interesting, I'm knitting this on the recommended needles without doing a gauge swatch. The gauge is figured "over Chart Patterns." It doesn't say which one. But this pattern has cabling on every single row, unlike some patterns where you have a row where you coast. I didn't want to try to knit a swatch flat and have to figure out how to translate the cables, and I didn't want to do the thing where you drag the yarn across the back of a flat swatch -- I just didn't think it would be that accurate. So the only think I could think to do was get started.

Which I have done. I got some laughs at my knitting group yesterday while my fellow knitters watched me cast 304 stitches of worsted yarn onto a 24" size 3 circular needles (yes, the pattern calls for this), but I managed. Now that I'm past the ribbing I'm on the larger needles and things fit a bit better. I'm going to knit the first 26 rounds (end of Chart E for those of you who have been paying attention so far), slip it on a cable and pray real hard that it fits around my tummy.

I hope I don't sound too cynical about this pattern. It's really quite beautiful and I love the yarn. I'm just trying to relax myself by making light of what promises to be a very challenging project.

Gone to the Dogs

I found myself in a strange position this morning. I went to my knitting group with the supplies to get started on that vest I mentioned in my last post. But turns out the yarn won't be here until Monday. No problem, I thought I'll just work on my socks. But I hadn't brought the socks. I was at my weekly knitting get-together with no knitting! I really didn't want to buy yarn to start something, so I concentrated on hanging out with dogs.

For most of the morning, I got to hold Alison's Maude on my lap. Maude is the awesomest Chihuahua on the face of the planet, right up there with Ren Hoek. She sat there patiently in my lap while I stroked her fur and pretended I was an evil genius. Maude wasn't really behind that plan, but she did leap into action when I dropped a few crumbs of Snowden's yummy key lime treat in my lap.

I also got to hang out with Hank, my favorite yarn store dog. He's getting heavy! But still oh so cute and lovable. I really enjoyed just listening to the conversation and hanging out with the canines. It was a good thing.

Speaking of Snowden, the knitwear design genius of the decidedly NOT evil variety, she's working on a little design and she's going to use ME for the example/model. I'm quite excited. Don't want to say too much because I don't now how much she wants to reveal at this point, but she'd like to make it out of this.

Great things in the works!

Spring Fever

Work continues on the Morning Roast Socks. I'm making these on 4 dpns rather than doing the magic loop method, which has been my favorite recently. I'm not sure why. I'm pleased with how these are turning out -- no pooling at all. Stephi did an awesome job dyeing this stuff. I think I'm at a point where I'm ready for my brother-in-law to come by and film me working on this sock for the small screen. Don't want to say to much more about this, because I don't want to jinx the process. Stay tuned.

I've been experiencing a kind of knitting restlessness this week. I've got a few things queued up in Ravelry to tackle, but the time didn't seem right. I felt sweater-ish, but the lovely weather just wasn't calling to me. Then I remembered a vest pattern that I'd considered from the book Guy Knits when I decided on the Perfectly Plain Vest. So, another vest, this time Herz & Baum (I assume the ampersand is pronounced "und") by Diane Zangl. Although this model looks decidedly librarian-y, up-close he's a little frightening looking, and I don't think the little earring works for him, either. The pattern is intricate, and it's worked in the round with steeks (eek!) at the sleeves and neck. It won't be boring, that's for sure.

Mine will be made from Cascade 220 Superwash in a color called Turtle. I can hear Jene laughing as she reads this. I've got it on order at The Knitting Nest, and hopefully, I'll have it by next week.

More social knitting this weekend with several long-distance out-of-town guests. Several friends brought cameras and snapped pics -- really, it was kind of like being on the red carpet at the Oscar's at one point. They're starting to show up on Flickr. Melissa took this one. I don't know what I was laughing at, but I sure was having fun! I don't think I got much knitting done, but I did get to eat my fill of breakfast tacos and cake balls.

Knitting Social

I just love getting together on weekends with fellow knitters. Sometimes we knit at yarn stores or various eateries. Sometimes at our homes. Jeff and I hosted this weekend and it was a blast.

Everyone brought a little somethin' to chow on and we ate and drank our way through the morning, discussing everything from knitting to anatomy, pets, drug use, television, you name it. Rarely do I get together with the Ladies of Knitting that I don't laugh so much that tears stream down my face. Today was no exception.

Sometimes I wonder what brings us all together. Our ages span two decades. Some of us are married, some not. Some are cat people, some are dog people. Some straight, some gay. But what we do have in common is a passion for knitting (and crocheting!), a quirky sense of humor, and an endless capacity for listening to each others' triumphs, gripes and problems. What more could you ask for?

Getting together with these women is one of the highlights of my week. I was so glad to have them over. There were a few who couldn't make it -- moving is a pretty good excuse -- and I hope to see them soon.

And to top it all off, I still have a few cookies left over...

C is for Cookie

And, C is for coffee. Delicious and oh-so-medically-necessary coffee. Here we have some new caffeinated socks that I'm making, using Spinning Colors sock yarn in the colorway Morning Roast, hand dyed by my knitting buddy and talented artist Stephi. Isn't this stuff awesome? This hank of yarn has given me the jitters -- in a good way!

I started to do a fancy pattern from the newer of my two Charlene Schurch sock knitting books, but after a dozen or so rounds, I realized I was once again making my classic sock knitting mistake -- coming up with a pattern that competes with the yarn. So I ripped back and decided to stick with a k4p2 rib. The perfect combination for showing off the cool dye-work and keeping the socks from sagging down around my ankles.

These socks may be destined for the small screen, so I'm very excited about them as a project. Stay tuned for more details...

In the background, and featured here in all their beige beauty is a batch of homemade oatmeal raisin cookies. In my opinion, nature's perfect food. I just use the recipe for Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies from inside the top of the Old Fashioned Quaker Oats box. The only change I made was grating in a little nutmeg. I'm expecting guests on Saturday, and I whipped these up this evening as part of the preparations. I just hope a few of them last until then.

Spring Knitting

I seem to have shaken some of the cobwebs out of my knitting and made some real progress. Yesterday morning I got together with some of the gals for breakfast tacos, fried chicken, waffles and knitting. Don't laugh 'til you've tried it. I did the tacos, but I'm thinking of waffles next time. Man, they smelled god. Many of the women I knit with are accomplished photographers as well as knitters -- Meg took this picture of me. I thought it was quite flattering, and since I can never take a good picture of myself, I'm including it here. It was a wonderful way to spend the morning.

Afterwards, I got some serious yard work done that needed doing. Leaves were raked, blown and sucked, weeds were whacked, edges were edged and grass was mown. I could barely move afterwards, but it was necessary. It was terribly windy last night and today too -- so it doesn't look any leaf removal took place yesterday. Sigh.

I finished Johnathan's baby blanket this morning. Here it is pre-blocking, looking kind of lumpy. Staci has extra stitches bound off from within other stitches to mirror the pointiness of the cast on edge. A little tricky at first, especially since it involved purling into the back of stitches, which I don't think I've ever done, but I got the hang out of it -- toward the end of the row, of course. Of course, the cast off edge doesn't look quite like the cast on. I bound it off pretty loosely (or so I thought), but it's still a bi more "uptight." I don't think the difference is too detrimental to the overall effect.

We have a bit of a clutter issue with the guest bed where I normally block things. A range of boxes, letters and other miscellaneous things have managed to take up residence there. So I had to get creative. Enter the dining table.

I knew I couldn't put pins in the dining table, but I figured I could use blocking wires and then find something heavy to hold them in place once I'd stretched the blanket out. For the most part, it's working well. Luckily, there were a few bottles of wine sitting around that could do the trick. I didn't know we had so many bottles in our wine rack. Looks like we got some drinking to do.

But not until the blanket dries. My next mission is to figure out whether the baby has arrived yet.