Not Knit

Progress continues with the baby blanket. As of today I've completed 11 of the 14 pattern repeats, so the end is near. I have to confess that I haven't been applying myself to the the craft like I should lately. I love knitting this blanket. I haven't looked at the chart in ages and it's a great project for learning to read one's knitting. It's almost getting instinctual. But I've definitely been feeling a lack of knittosterone.

I've also had many distractions. This weekend, Jeff and I went out of town and while in north Texas, we caught the exhibit Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs at the Dallas Museum of Art. We both had a great time. There was a (tentative) genealogical chart at the beginning, so I was in heaven. About half the exhibit featured items from King Tut's tomb, while the rest was from the tombs of his father, grandparents and great-grandparents. I didn't know about Tutankhamun rolling back his father's monotheistic religious reforms, which was quite interesting.

Photography, of course, was not allowed, so no pictures here. But afterward, because it was raining, we ducked into the Crow Collection of Asian Art across the street. What a treat! The first floor had a collection of masks from Japanese Noh theater. I was fascinated by the more terrifying and hideous ones, although there were some that had more normal human features.





The second floor had beautiful galleries of art from Chinese tombs, a collection of Japanese snuff bottles, and some beautiful statues from India. But the most amazing thing was an exhibit on the third floor, Stitching the Seasons: Contemporary Japanese Quilts.

The exhibit introduction said that modern quilting techniques were taken back to Japan by the wives of Japanese diplomats and businessmen after seeing several quilt exhibitions during the bicentennial celebrations. The quilts in this exhibit were amazing. I don't know as much about quilting as I probably should, having descended from generations of quilters, but I could recognize some of the patterns.

I was blown away by a log cabin-style quilt done all in grayscale, with each "log" only about half an inch wide and maybe two inches long. The colors were placed so that the quilt created the image of the countryside during a snowfall. Beautiful. It was in an odd place and difficult to photograph

But I did get a picture of this quilt, Flower Festival by Noriko Masui (2006). This is only the center motif, but it gives you a good idea of the intricacy and detail in this beautiful object. You can see a Lone Star pattern in the middle, almost hidden amongst a profusion of leaves and blossoms. It's kind of a kaleidoscope effect, but softer. This is one of the most beautiful quilts I've ever seen.

The weather the past two weekends has been beautiful here in central Texas. It even rained a bit in between. We've taken advantage of the loveliness and done some hiking in the Barton Creek Greenbelt, not far from where we live. One of the nice things about living in Austin is that this picture was taken about 2 miles from our house -- about a 40 minute walk away. Note the tiny rock climbers at the top of the cliff to the left. I think I'll stick to knitting.

The Out of Towners

The baby blanket continues. This picture makes it look blurry, but look at the photograph in it's original size and you'll see it's not.

I'm enjoying it, except when I mess it up. Yesterday afternoon, I saw that one of my lines of diagonally arranged yarnovers was headed in the wrong direction. I thought I could just ladder down a series of four stitches and re-created them, but doing so involved a lot of traveling stitches and passing slipped stitches over and I got confused. Luckily, I'd thought to put in a dental floss lifelines at the end of the previous pattern repeat. With a sigh, I frogged back 6 or 7 rows.

Be advised that even though you've been thrown a lifeline, you're still likely to go through a lot of sputtering and coughing (and cursing). Although all the stitches in the row are on the floss, some of those little stitches still managed to pop their little heads down the rabbit holes in which they are nestled. Their a bear to get out. Just two of these had me in a fit for half an hour. But I got back on track and all is well. I'm nearly back to where I had been.

Today, Jeff and I went to Fredericksburg out in the Texas Hill Country. Just a little half-day trip so that we could say we went somewhere for spring break. The weather was perfect. Sure could tell that central Texas needs rain, though. Some parts of the hill country are starting to look like extensions of the Chihuahuan Desert. We took a scenic route through Willow City, and drove by Thousand Oaks Alpacas. It was kind of there and past before we knew it, so we didn't stop to nose around, but we met one of the owner's cousins in town while browsing through a shop, and she had a brochure about the place. Might be a fun thing to do with out-of-town knitting friends.

While in Fredericksburg, we ate lunch at The Peach Tree Restaurant. It's one of those "ladies who lunch" kind of places, but Jeff and fit right in. They have the most awesome quiche -- today's offering had Canadian bacon and green chillies in it. Yummy. Then we walked down to Rather Sweet Bakery and split an enormous slab of carrot cake. Awesomeness.

To top off this lovely day, we noticed that one of our Belinda's Dream Roses was blooming when we got home. there was just enough daylight left to grab a picture.

And today was the last full day of winter. Looks like it's going to be a lovely spring. If only it would rain some more...

Our Boys Need Sox

I've only knitted one 16-row pattern repeat on the blue baby blanket. Not much to report on that front. However, I did run across something during my web ramblings that's been occupying my mind. I thought I'd share -- 'cause that's how we librarians roll.

This picture appeared on The Shorpy Photo Archive this week and grabbed my attention. Click here for the blog entry and here for a much larger version. This always interesting blog features high quality scanned images of old photographs -- most in black and white -- culled from archives. They run the gamut of things people take pictures of -- ladies at dog shows, Civil War soldiers, newsies at the turn of the century, old buildings -- you name it. I enjoy scrolling the images in my feed reader, but this one really caught my eye.

The picture is of two soldiers and a nurse at Walter Reed General Hospital (now the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The date (1918) is from the end of World War II. And the guy on the left, with the help of the nurse, is making socks on some kind of contraption. I'm guessing this is some sort of occupational therapy, or perhaps a way to keep injured soldiers active in the war effort. That poor guy on the right looks like he needs all the help he can get. I can't imagine what kind of hell he's been through and I find it hard to look into his eyes. It looks like he's going to fling off that chenille robe and throttle the photographer. The striped garter-stitch thing to his right looks almost exactly like the second scarf I ever knit.

I'd never seen anything like this sock knitting machine before. I'm not exactly into the whole steampunk thing, but there is something kind of cool about these things, with their silvery needles and brass nameplates and chipped black paint. Maybe it's because they look like an old typewriter? I don't know. I kind of sort of want one of these.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not planning on giving up dpn-ing, two-circularing and magic looping. Handknitting socks is a joy that I don't plan to give up. But these machines are nifty. It's kind of like making ice-cream, I would imagine. Listening to the little clacks and cranking out a pair of socks in under an hour -- how fun is that? Plus, I imagine one would come in handy when we are in the grips of what my friend Tom calls "the monkey disease apocalypse" that he's sure is just around the corner. Surely people would let me into their bomb shelters or compounds if they saw that I could keep them in socks. Right?

Unfortunately, it appears that restored sock knitting machines seem to be on the steep side -- they're probably all being horded by survivalists. Still, I'm going to be on the lookout. I would love to see one demonstrated live and maybe take one for a whirl. In the meantime, I'll be scoping out this video made at last fall's Maker Faire in Austin.



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Blue Blankie

Yesterday morning I got started on the baby blanket that I mentioned in the previous post. I went by The Knitting Nest and got 7 balls of Dalegarn Baby Ull in blue. The pattern calls for eight balls, but The Nest only had 7 in stock. Having consulted the designer, I know that the 8th ball is for the fringe, and I don't care if it's a different dye lot, or maybe even another shade of blue.

This is a great pattern. It has five lace segments filled with a tidy diamond pattern, bordered by sections of seed stitch. I've gotten pretty good at reading the pattern in what I've already knit -- knowing how to intersperse the yarnovers is the main trick. I love patterns that look complicated but have a wonderful logic to them that makes them interesting without overtaxing one's brain. My brain does not need to be overtaxed these days.

I'm glad to have this project to distract me. I got back to the Piano Cushion earlier this week. I'm not sure why it's languished so long -- it just wasn't something I wanted to work on, I suppose. One evening I took it over to the piano bench to gauge my progress. It seems that I'm 2-3 inches to narrow from side-to-side. I think I may have noticed this earlier and thought that I could take care of this in the blocking. But this thing is made from linen. It won't stretch in blocking, will it? Especially sideways? I don't think so.

I'm facing the fact that I may just have to start over. I have enough yarn to do so (I think), but it's pretty demoralizing. I could get it done pretty quickly if I just knuckled down and applied myself to it, but I don't want to start over if I don't have to.

Thank goodness for the security blanket!

Tundra

I've finished the Tundra Socks.

Not much to report about these. Just good, mindless (mostly) knitting -- the kind of thing I've been needing to do lately. I did my standard recipe for a sock that fits me: cast on 72 stitches, work 2x2 ribbing, work a slip-stitch heel with a 3-stitch garter border, consult the chapter on four-stitch sock patterns from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks to get the stitch counts for turning the heel and getting the gusset pickup count (still don't quite have that memorized), and then it's on to the toe, with another quick glance to remember when to stop decreasing.

I've not been knitting as much as I'd like to be the last few weeks, but these were nice to have around to pick up and work on during the odd hour here and there. Dark, calming colors, interspersed with little bits of brightness. Just what I needed.

What's next? I've got two things looming.

First of all, I need to take a repair day. I need to unweave and knot the ends on the part of the Piano Cushion I've finished so far. I need to repair the zipper on the Cobra Sweater -- the bottom end came loose the last time I wore it. And I need to stretch out the Perfectly Plain Vest to get a little more length out of it. I thought I might just take a day this weekend or next to attend to these things. I need to get that cushion finished, and if I don't attend to those sweaters now, it won't happen until it gets cold again (if that ever happens!), and then I'll be mad at myself for not having taken care of things sooner.

Secondly, I need to knit a baby blanket. Most of my friends don't have children, and those that do have quite young ones. But my roommate from college, Bob, has been a step-father for some time, and he is soon to be a step-grandfather. He's been a great role model in his step-daughter's life, and I want to make something really special for her soon-to-arrive little boy.

I'm thinking of making Staci's Renee Baby Blanket (scroll down after clicking) in a nice blue or green. What do you think? Would this be appropriate for a little bundle of boyjoy?

Muskeg

To while away greenroom time at the fundraiser I participated in last week, I got a new pair of socks on the needle. Just a basic 2x2 ribbed pair, with sizing and shaping based on the four-stitch rib chapter of Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks. Kind of my fall-back sock position, and the place I need to be right now.

The yarn is Zitron Trekking Hand Art in the colorway Tundra, so I'm calling these Tundra Socks. This yarn is quite sturdy and comes in a generous hank of 462 yards. Lots of dark, murky browns and greens, with acid-bright splashes of lichen-like greens and oranges. I titled this post "muskeg," because on a sunny and warm late winter day like this, I'm having trouble conjuring frozen, treeless tundra and am thinking this yarn reminds me of the tundra's slightly-more-southern sibling, the swampy, earthy muskeg. Which I suppose I should have even more trouble imagining here in drought-plagued central Texas, but I gotta try.

I spent a few hours this morning getting some weeds out of the front yard. After landscaping a few years back, the mulching has impeded most weed growth, but early spring always brings out some die-hard invaders. Being out in the cool morning and digging in the ground was good therapy for me. And we just got back from the world's shortest Mardi Gras parade led by one of our 2-year-old neighbors and 20 or so of her closest friends. It really lifted our spirits.

Thanks to all the kinds words and thoughts sent our way this past week. They've meant a lot.

Silas

This is a picture of our dog, Silas, taken on his last day, a few hours before we took him to the vet to be euthanized yesterday.

Silas came to live with us on Easter Sunday in 1998. A professor of Jeff's from graduate school told him that an acquaintance of hers was trying to find a home for a dog that had been abandoned at a local dog park. This friend was often the first one to arrive at the park in the morning, and one day, there was Silas. Someone had slipped him into the park with a note around his collar saying that he had been found wandering around Town Lake, but that his rescuer's landlord wouldn't allow keeping him. We met Silas at the park a few times, and decided to try a sleepover Easter weekend. That sleepover lasted nearly 11 years.

He loved all people, especially kids, but other dogs not so much. He liked the idea of chasing cats outdoors, but was cowed by any that he met inside. He was never a cuddly animal. He liked to be nearby, especially during thunderstorms, but was content to sleep a few feet away. He snored and chased squirrels in his sleep. He adored Jeff's father. He had no interest in fetching anything tossed on dry land but was absolutely compelled to retrieve anything thrown into a body of water. He was quite skilled at catching food tossed to him. He loved going to the groomer's and the vet's office and seemed to be very popular at both places -- he could really turn on the charm when he wanted to. He loved to ride in the car and was known to jump into strange cars if the doors were left open. He had a very accurate stomach clock that announced mealtimes to the second -- but mercifully, it was flexible on weekend mornings. Whenever we came home, he was always waiting to greet us at the top of the stairs.

Last fall, after some unusual accidents in the house, we took him in for a checkup and some test results warranted further investigation. An ultrasound confirmed that he had a rather large and seemingly fast-growing tumor on one of his adrenal glands that was also impinging on his aorta and causing symptoms of Cushing's syndrome. Although usually treatable, the form that Silas had was not, and due to his age, Jeff and I decided take a course of making him comfortable and waiting. We knew that we would have to make a tough decision when the time came. This past Sunday evening he stopped eating and he became increasingly wobbly over the next several days. So we made an appointment with the vet for last night. It was very difficult, but very necessary.

He was a good dog. We are really going to miss him.

The Gloves Are Off...

...the needles! I finished them last night. Thought I'd take advantage of all the sun to take some quick pictures and squeeze in a quick post during my lunch hour, since I had the luxury of starting my work day with a meeting not far from my house.

I re-knit the first glove from the base of thumb up, starting Sunday. The fingers really don't take much time -- the main issues I had concerned fit. I had a really hard time gauging how long to make the fingers. On size 3 needles using sport weight yarn, a row or two can really make the difference between webbed fingers and floppy tips.

As mentioned earlier, I made some modifications, which I'll detail on the gloves' Ravelry project page soon.

I wouldn't hesitate to make gloves again, although my next pair will probably be with fingering (sock) weight yarn. These gloves are really heavy. I wore them around the house last night and my hands almost got too hot. I'd like to try something with stranded knitting for a little variety in color -- I can hear some readers snorting in disbelief already. But I'm very happy with these gloves, especially since they represent branching out into a new garment, but also because I got this awesome yarn at a swap. One knitter's unused stash is another knitter's treasure.

I got them finished just in time to photograph them on my back deck in a short-sleeved shirt and 82-degree weather!

In the News

Several weeks ago, a woman from Texas Student Media at the University of Texas at Austin came by The Knitting Nest to take some pictures while I was there knitting with some friends. She told us that they were doing an article about knitting for a campus publication and that it would be available in mid-February.

Well, a few weeks ago it came out and I finally got to see a copy. I found out about it when Stacy emailed me a picture she'd taken of the article from her iPhone -- definitely one of those in my future. Of all the pictures of the photogenic knitters there that day, they chose this one of me. I'm not mentioned in the article at all which you can read if you click here for a larger version. I'm just the eye candy.

It's actually a pretty good picture of me. It looks posed, but really we were just hanging out. I was working on the first (and more deformed) of the Men's Heavy Gloves, though that's hard to discern in the photograph. It has a weird formality to it that kind of appeals to me. But read the article -- it's not about me. It's about my favorite award-winning Local Yarn Shop and the wonderful things it does for Austin knitters. Like the awesome Ravelry festivities that took place yesterday, and which I had to miss. Check out these photos of all the fun I missed!

Fixglove

This may look like a pair, but it's not.

The one on the right was finished three weeks ago, the one on the left, last night. As I was knitting these gloves, I learned a few things -- too late for the first glove, but just in the nick of time for the second. Uncharacteristically, I thought I could make some alterations that could make these gloves a little more wearable. Yes -- I actually made changes to a pattern. Two of them were pretty easy, but the other was a little more complicated -- and I figured it out all by myself!

Below is a diagram of what I did:

Starting at the bottom with the green line, I stopped the base of the thumb four rows earlier than the pattern called for. Things were looking just a bit too webby on the right glove, and I thought that this might help. It did! I don't think this is a pattern problem, just a personal anatomy issue. Apparently, I'm an ape.

The red line shows that I started the pinkie finger a few rows before the other fingers. I put the pinkie stitches on a holder and cast on in the gap between the fingers, much like the thumb. Look at your hand -- your pinkie probably starts lower on your hand than the other fingers. You'd think I would have a basic grasp of my own anatomy, but Staci actually pointed this out to me. Some patterns take this into account, others don't. I did misread the pattern (forgot I was going in the opposite direction on the opposite hand), and I cast on 4 instead of 2 stitches between the fingers, but I knit them together when the time came to work that finger. No problems.

The blue line indicates that I knit the fingers just a few rows longer. Again, webbing issues on the first glove. I thought they fit perfectly, but when someone with shorter fingers than I tried them on and noted they were too short (thanks, Stephi) I realized that I'd been deluding myself. This time I paid more attention and added a few rows. A few times I had to tink back after finishing the finger because it was too long or too short, but I think I got each one just right.

Now that I know what I'm doing, I'm hoping I can get the right glove back into shape quickly. I'll have to frog back to the middle of the thumb. I have enough yarn -- it might just be easier to start over.

Block Your Socks Off

The True Love Socks are blocking as I write this. I took Janelle's advice and made my own sock blockers. I basically took a finished sock, laid it out across some cardboard, cut it out, traced it to make a second one, and then wrapped both of them using GLAD Press'n Seal® Wrap. Voila - sock blockers. And yes, one leg is longer than the other, but that doesn't really matter.

My only concern is that I made the blockers a little smaller than I actually traced them, thinking that this might make them smaller (I think these look a little large), but being superwash wool, I don't think I'm going to get shrinkage. Unlike George Constanza, superwash wool was designed to NOT shrink in cold water. Go figure. Eh -- if they're too big, some drag queen can always snatch them up, right?

So I washed the socks, rolled them up in a towel to squeeze out the excess water, and then put them on the blockers. They're drying on out kitchen counter right now. It was really easy!

Still dithering about pricing...

Also, I got back to work on the Men's Heavy Gloves some this weekend. I've made some alterations to the second glove (and taking careful notes), that I'm hoping will make for a better overall fit. For instance, it was pointed out to me that the gaps between one's pinkie and ring fingers start lower than the gaps between the other fingers. I'm keeping my, er, fingers crossed that everything works out with these changes. More later.

♥ Think Pink ♥

I finished the True Love socks this evening. The first sock took me twenty days to complete, the second, six. Pretty standard for me.

I feel like I branched out making these. First of all, they were pink. Very, very pink. Like Angela on The Office, one of my favorite colors is charcoal, so let's just say I was a wee bit out of my comfort zone. But I was knitting with Lorna's Laces, a sock yarn I ♥ to knit with, so that was some small comfort.

I also got to work on some laciness, which I haven't done much of. It definitely requires concentration. The front lattice pattern was a 2-row pattern, and the sides were a 10-row pattern. But for both of these socks, I didn't get the patterns to ever start on the same row. Both patterns had all knit stitches for the even-numbered rows, but they didn't line up. At first this I hated this, but it dawned on me that it was a great way to help figure out what row I was on, so I learned to ♥ the alternation.

I also ♥ the toe-up construction that doesn't look toe-up. It was a very interesting and easy heel that I might try again the next time I do a toe-up pattern. I think it looks better than my attempts at double-wrapped short row heels. I did use Cat Bordhi's method of hiding the stitch wraps, which I ♥ more than Charlene Schurch's method.

I may have mentioned that these socks are destined as silent auction items for a fundraiser for the chorus I sing in. The yarn cost me about $20. What do you think I should set the value of these at to get the bidding started? I thought at first I'd set it at the yarn cost, but Jene says that's ridiculous. Any thoughts or suggestions?

In the meantime I need to wash them and figure out how to get them blocked to women's size eight feet. I'm thinking of trying something with a coat hanger.

♥♥♥♥♥♥

A Very Merry Unbirthday!

Yours truly is one lucky knitter. Today, my knitting gang got together and threw me a surprise birthday party!

Most of the people in our group have their birthdays in the spring -- I'm kind of the odd man out -- in more ways than one. My birthday was back in the fall, and I was happy to let it pass by quietly. But the ladies outdid themselves today. Meg hosted and made some rockin' cakes, Melissa brought a delicious eggy/sausagey/cheesy breakfast casserole, Abbe brought cheese & crackers, we had mimosas, Wii-ed all over the place, and had our usual great time. Plus, the Ladies of Knitting (those above plus Stephi, Staci, Allison,Snowden, Kristin and Jene) got me a gift certificate to my favorite LYS. Who could ask for anything more?

Here a few pictures from the festivities. Meg's Flickr set for the day can be found here.





I also managed to finish the first of the True Love Socks that I'm going to make for a silent auction. I like the pattern. It's neat to learn some lace knitting techniques -- an area I haven't explored and for the most part and am enjoying (k4t, anyone?). But I've had issues. Like forgetting to put in a lifeline. And getting the directions that M1s lean confused.

I also had a problem with the suggested tubular bind off. I'd heard of this but never tried it. For those unfamiliar with the technique, you basically take 1x1 ribbing and then alternately slip the purl and knit stitches on four rounds to turn the ribbing into what is essentially a few rows of double knitting. Then you Kitchener stitch the two rows together. A little fiddly in the round, but I figured it out. My main issue was that this bind off was extremely rigid. Maybe it was just the way I did it, but I couldn't see how anyone could their legs into the sock. I ripped it out (no mean feat), and just went with Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn bind off. I think it looks fine. I like the hearts.

Now I just have to finish the second one by Valentine's Day. I'm already a couple of inches up the toe.

[Post scriptum 2/1/09 -- found some more picture from other attendees at Flickr. They're added at the top of the post]

Boy Hat

I wanted to make me a boy hat, but I'm not a boy. My apologies to Book of Love -- I couldn't resist. That dang song was going through my head the whole time I was knitting this thing. Meg made one for her boy, and it looked so great I thought I'd try my hand. I think I like the striping of Meg's hat better than what I came up with, but overall I'm pleased.

I bought the yarn Sunday, and that night I had it finished. Except it was a tad too short. I have one those heads on which tube-shaped object either fit fine around the back of the head and the brows, or around the ears, but not both at the same time. It was just too short to cover my ears, so I frogged it back to where the decreases started, added an inch, and then re-knit. I finished it last night.

And none too soon. I woke up to 64 degree weather, but it's since turned nasty. In typical Texas overreaction to frozen participation, I'm thinking the college might even be closed in the morning.

No worries. I'll be warm.

[Post scriptum 1/28/09 -- College open as usual. I was wrong!]

G-Love

For a long time, I've been obsessed with the idea of gloves. Not as obsessed as MadTV's Dot here, but keen nonetheless. They look awfully complicated -- like socks with toes, but with all the increasing and decreasing in different places. Recently, pattern and yarn plopped themselves in my lap and I got to work.

I'm using a pattern called Men's Heavy Gloves, a 1945 Beehive pattern reprinted in Retro Knits. It calls for DK weight yarn, but I recently fell into some chocolaty Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport (see previous post), and I thought it might work on bigger needles. So far, things are looking good. The body of the glove has a cool texture that appeals to me.

I did have some problems in the space after the thumb hole is done but before the fingers are started. The instructions read "P1, CO 4 sts, sl next 16..." And my poor feeble brain read CO to mean "Cast off." Of course, this made no sense in context, but I couldn't see that this meant "Cast on" for the longest time. I haven't made that many patterns that cast on in the middle of the work, and it just wouldn't compute. You should have seen the weirdness that resulted. I tried five or six times, not understanding how the mess I was making could become wearable. Finally, it clicked.

Unlike the nice quiet bamboo needles. It's been a long time since I've used dpns, and I'm enjoying it. Just wish I had some slightly shorter ones for the fingers. It's hard to juggle all that wood around 16 little stitches.

S.W.A.P.*

*Stash Weeding and Procurement

This weekend, I attended a yarn swap, brainchild of fellow knitter Staci. The idea was that participants were to dig through their stashes, find stuff they didn't want any more for whatever reason (ugly, tired of looking at it, really ugly, only one ball of something leftover from a project, hideously ugly, etc.) and bring it to the swap. For each item one brought in, a numbered ticket was drawn from a bag. Multiple balls/hanks/skeins of the same thing were considered one thing for purposes of the swap. Numbers were called in order and when your numbers came up, it was your turn to take something from the pile.



It was immediately apparent, considering the enormous pile of fiber on the table, that this could be a lot of fun or get really ugly really fast. Turns out we all played fair, we were all civil, and no blood was drawn. Who knew?

I was a little nervous about the swap, mostly because I didn't think I had much of a stash. But turns out digging through one's entire pile of yarn is an excellent organizational reality check. I came up with 18 things to donate, from zebra-stripe sock yarn that I just couldn't bring myself to use, to leftover yarn from Jeff's British Checks Sweater, to leftover scraps of Cascade 220 from any number of projects. It was fun to see people's faces light at up at balls of yarn that no longer held any interest for me.



I've never been one to buy yarn for yarn's sake. I kind of need to know where I'm going with it before I buy something. But I think I got some fun stuff. I got some sock yarn (of course) and some brown worsted that might become a scarf and some brown sport weight that might become a pair of gloves. And some crazy red wool/recycled silk stuff from Tibet that I grabbed in a moment of panic.

Good times! I hope we do this again.

Investiture

I finished my Perfectly Plain Vest late Thursday night. It was one of those finishing experiences where, despite fears of making fatigue-induced mistakes, I just had to finish it that night. Luckily, things went off without a hitch.

I love this sweater -- it's warm, it's light, it's comfortable. The KnitPicks Elegance yarn from which it's made seems to change colors slightly depending on the angle and intensity of the light. Although it appears to be dark brown, there's a surprising amount of redness that pops out from time to time. The little wispy strands of Alpaca that work their way loose over time don't even bother me. I haven't worn a sweater vest like this since 1976, when my family moved to Texas from the Pacific Northwest. Nerdiness never felt so good.

I can heartily recommend this pattern. It knits up fast, and it's very uncomplicated. I was a little concerned that the body was knit on size 6 needles, while the edging was done with the same yarn on size 3 needles. I thought this would bunch things up, but this yarn seemed to handle it quite well.

I did have a bit of trouble picking up stitches around the armholes. The pattern called for picking up 175 stitches, but I could only find 162. I also wish that maybe I had added an extra inch before the armhole decreases. I've only steam-blocked this (and that fairly lightly), so I'm wondering if a full-immersion blocking might not allow me to stretch an extra inch out, even though it's already been seamed up.

I've made a little progress on the True Love Socks that I'm knitting for a silent auction. I already have the pattern across the instep memorized. One of the M1 moves is hard to execute, but I've managed so far. And the pinkness is no longer searing my retinas. Seriously, the first time I closed my eyes after knitting with this yarn, all I could see was pink. My biggest challenge will be to remember that the pattern is written for a women's size 8 and not for me.

At the risk of sounding like a perv -- are there any women with size 8 feet out there who wouldn't mind sharing with me how long their feet are? The pattern just says "Continue in pattern until foot measures about 3 ¼” less than the desired length." But I have no idea what that would be.

Follow-up note, 1/18/09:

Janna suggested that I check Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks for a foot sizing chart. It tells me that a woman's size 8 foot is about 9¾" long. Does this sound about right?

Pink Bananas

I know some of you are going to need to sit down. Comfy? Good. Yesterday, I bought the sock yarn you see to the right. I'll give you a moment to recover.

It's Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in "Pink Blossom." Yes, that's right -- your monitor is functioning correctly. If your eyes aren't hurting, you're not human. The chorus I sing with is presenting its Sweetheart Cabaret next month, and I want to make a pair of socks to donate to the silent auction fund raiser that we hold that evening. I'm thinking of using a free pattern I found through Ravelry, True Love Socks. Totally unlike anything I would normally make, but totally appropriate for the event. I'm sure that some philanthropic soul that evening will be willing to help out the chorus for the privilege of having these lace numbers on her ( or his?) feet!

Also, just for kicks, here is a picture of a dessert that Jeff and I are only minutes away from digging into. It's a Banana Cream Layer Cake, a recipe in the EatingWell Comfort Food Made Healthy cookbook that Jeff got for Christmas. The house smells wonderfully banana-y, and it's not all that bad for you at only 300 calories per slice.

Assuming you're going to eat only one slice...

Vestige

I've finished the back of the Perfectly Plain Vest. As you can see, it's, well, plain. But I love it. It's lighter than air and extremely soft. I don't even mind the little flyaway fibers of alpaca-ness. And I got gauge right off the bat -- and I kept it. Still don't know what's up with the size. The pattern has instructions for sizes S, M, L, XL, 1X and 2X, and by measurement, I'm making the M. I am not, nor have I ever been, M. In the meantime, I am knitting and crossing my fingers (figuratively -- it's not very productive to try and knit while one's fingers are crossed).

As you may have noticed the "Blue Tiger Socks" have disappeared from the "On Needles" section to the right. Long, complicated story, the gist of which is I knit the business end of these two socks about six weeks apart. There are 10 (or, "J") measurements in this pattern -- Coriolis sock knitters will know what I mean. I didn't write down a one of them. A few I remembered, but many I didn't. I figured I'd get the same numbers if I just remeasured all my parts and re-did the calculations. Right? Wrong. I ended up with two socks of very different sizes, neither of which fit well.

I don't blame the designer. I'm a little put out with the editor or whoever made the decision to make a book from which one can't knit a garment without flipping to dozens of different locations to get numbers, methods, etc. But the fault lies with me. I should have done the little class sock from the front of the book (as advised by the author!) in order to fix the "big picture" in my brain. And I should have written down the measurements. Ravelry projects have a notes section for each project where I could have written these numbers down. Note to Self -- remember Notes.

We will not speak of this again. I've got some frogging to do.

Investment

New yarn arrived in my mailbox today.

My most generous Uncle Cliffy gave me a gift certificate to Knit Picks for my birthday a few months ago, and I recently decided what I was going to do with it. I spent some (but not all) of it on 9 balls of Elegance in the color Redwood. It's destined to be a sweater vest, a garment I haven't worn since elementary school in the 70s.

I'm using the Perfectly Plain Vest pattern by Julie Gaddy. It originally appeared in Winter 2001 issue of Knitter's Magazine, but is reproduced in Guy Knits, part of the Best of Knitter's series. I got this book and Retro Knits: Cool Vintage Patterns for Men, Women, and Children from the 1900s through the 1970s from my in-laws for Christmas. Lots of cool stuff to mull through!

For reasons that Uncle Cliffy would appreciate, I chose this yarn because it is a nice Alpaca(70%)/Silk(30%) blend. And even though the wool comes from Peru, I'll think of Sir Francis in Gentleman Prefer Blondes, singing to Lorelei...

It's delightful down in Chile
Where the nights are nice and chilly,
And the golden moon is hanging low, oh.

I've already rushed a swatch into production and I'm right on target for gauge. We'll see if that holds out. In the meantime, I'm excited about nerdy armless warmth streaming forth from my new Addi Clicks!