Swelligance

I finished the Swelligant Scarf this morning. Not bragging or anything -- okay, I'm bragging -- eight days from cast on to bindoff. I should have made this one of those knitting olympics challenges. Actually, I did a lot of the knitting for this while watching the Democratic convention on the tube during the evenings this week. Perhaps it was the excitement of the times we live in that gave me super knitting powers.

I can highly recommend this pattern (Ravelers can find out more here) for a quick knit that doesn't require a whole lot of attention. Once you get a few stitch and row markers in place, you just whiz along. I did make a mistake toward the end where I cabled on the first strip and not on the matching third. Pretty incredible that I only did this once, come to think of it. I just ripped back and all was good.

I used all but about 6 inches of the four balls of yarn I had. The pattern says to knit to a certain row, and then knit 12 more rows of a certain type and then bind off. It requires a fairly good eye for how much yarn you have left. I got lucky. After doing a sewn bind-off, I had about 8 inches of yarn left (see photo). Whew.

I haven't blocked this, and I think I'm not going to. The finished scarf is suppoosed to be 60 inches long. This one is closer to 54", but I tried it on and it seems fine to me. Blocking would allow me to put in that stretch, but I just don't think it's necessary. What do you think -- is it necessary to block this?

Now I have to read up on the process for sending this to the OFA Red Scarf Project folks so it can be forwarded to its recipient. I've never done any altruistic knitting like this before. It feels pretty good.

Red Scarf

Last night, I faced the prospect of going to hang out with knitting friends the next morning and not having a portable project to hand. I know, right?

I'd always meant to participate in the Red Scarf Project, but usually managed to clue into it right before the deadline. This year, inspired by friends such as Janna, I decided to make one myself. I work at a community college, an institution which serves many former foster kids, so as a knitter, this excellent cause is tailor-made for me.

I found a reversible cabled scarf pattern in Debbie Stoller's Son of Stitch 'n Bitch called the Swelligant Scarf, threw the book in my bag and headed off this morning. At The Knitting Nest, I picked up some lightly variegated (vaguely variegated?) red yarn and got crankin'.

It doesn't look quite like the picture in the book, the scarf in that example being made with a much more drapey silk/wool blend, but I'm liking what's going on. From a distance it looks plain, but up close, stuff is happening. Because the main panels are worked as a 1x1 pattern, cables incorporated into this pattern are pretty convincingly reversible. As you can see, the center strip is offset from the outside strips, creating a cool effect. Not only are the cables spiraling, but the spirals themselves spiral relative to their neighbors.

Now that I'm into the pattern, it's going quickly. I did all this in just a few hours. And it's the first project in forever that I've done with straight needles (ahem). They were a little hard to get used to.

Back to Work

The Mineshaft socks are complete! I only worked on these sporadically over the last month or so. I took them on trips and barely worked on them. Then I'd have bursts of activity. It's hard to knit anything in wool when it's 100+ outside. Even socks. There -- I said it.

I'm happy with them. I just love knitting with Lorna's Laces, no matter what the colorway. The yarn just flies through my fingers and the stitches end up so pretty. The yarn makes it so easy. The pattern I used called for 78 stitches circumference -- a few wider than I normally do, so they are a little looser than some socks I've made. But the pattern in the yarn spiraled nicely and there was no pooling.

Once again I chose too fancy a pattern with too fancy a yarn. In an ideal world, fancy yarn = simple pattern and simple yarn = fancy pattern. I can't seem to get this through my head. Maybe if I write it down here, I'll remember.

Tomorrow, I head back to work to start the new academic year. I'm ready. I like having my time off in the summer, but I'm usually ready to go back. I can use the structure. As usual, I've started staying up too late and sleeping in too long. I CAN adjust to being a morning person, but it's sure not my natural state.

I've added a few rows on the Piano Cushion since my last post, but not much. I found it disconcerting to switch between the lovely wool of the Lorna's Laces and the unforgiving twine-ness of the Euroflax linen. So I decided to concentrate on one at a time.

So, back to work.

High Points

Jeff and I have been out on the road for the past week, enjoying the cooler, drier climes of New Mexico. A goal of ours, at which we were successful, was climbing the highest mountain in that state, Wheeler Peak (elev. 13,161 ft.). Jeff and I have been visiting the highest points of states for years. It's a great way to see the U.S. -- you wind up in the strangest places. This was my 33rd high point! And before you start asking -- yes, most of the ones I have left to visit are difficult. (I say most -- I haven't gotten to Iowa, Janna!)

While on the road, I visited (or attempted to visit) a few yarn shops -- high points in their own right! I only got to one. One was closed -- a few I couldn't find. I haven't been in much of a knitting mood over the past month -- blame it on the heat -- so no huge loss. I did manage to get these hanks of sock yarn at The Yarn Shop in Taos. The ball bands have SECONDS stamped on them. I've never seen that before. Does it mean it's full of knots? The price was right, so I grabbed them. And get this -- like the current pair of socks I'm working on, this yarn, too, has a distinct pinkness to it. What's happening to me?

Some progress has been made with the Piano Cushion. I had about 10 responses to my question of which color to use to link all the colors together. Only one person voted for the sandalwood (brown) color. So cream it is. As you may be able to see, I've done nine 8-row sections, which means I've repeated each color 3 times. I think it's looking pretty good, although slipping the stitches across 6 rows does stretch things a bit. I guess that's why linen yarn was called for -- it can probably take it. I'm not finding the linen too harsh to work with. But I'm noticing that the lighter green color seems to be spun thinner than the the darker green and the brown. You can clearly see through it in several places. I'm hoping that washing the fabric after knitting it will cause it to fill out and bloom a little.

In the meantime, we're sweltering here. How is it that I can live 200 miles from where a tropical storm hit the coast, directly in its path, and get only five minutes of rain out of it? It's a good thing I live in an area of only extreme drought. According to this map, the exceptional drought is still 15 miles away!

Knitting on the Road

Hanging with Rocky at The Yarn Shop in Taos, NM

Knitting on the Road

In Arroyo Seco, NM. They were closed!

Which Swatch?

I'm back from Miami. Our chorus brought down the house on Tuesday night and seemed to be popular. We managed to get off stage mere seconds before the lights went off -- they were pretty strict about the 30-minute time limits for performances. I was glad to get it over with and we had quite a bit of fun for the rest of the week. We also heard some amazing music and ate some darn yummy food.

I didn't knit as much as I thought I would. I got to work on my Mineshaft Socks a little on the plane, but except for a few stolen moments shown in the picture here, I didn't have much time for the fiber arts. I managed to finish the first sock in the airport at 7:00am (they have one of those now?!) while waiting to fly home. I'm happy with it. More pictures when I've finished the pair, which may be a while because I've got a new big project in the works...



I finally gathered all the linen yarn I needed to start the Piano Cushion I want to make. I've got the colors I like, but while making swatches (no really, I did!), I decided to monkey with the colors. I'm trying to decide whether to use the brown (sandalwood) as the border color in the pattern or whether to go with the cream color. I like the sandalwood as a border since it's different from the green-scale of the others in the picture on the left, but I also like the idea of using the lightest color to tie together the darker ones as shown in the picture on the right. Which do you prefer? Comments and opinions welcome!

(As an aside, the picture on the left was knit on size 2 needles. I'm definitely going to be using the size 3 as shown in the photo at right. They're what the pattern called for.)

Mineshaft

Whew! About to slip down!

Yesterday I got assertive and contacted the company with which I had back-ordered the linen yarn I've been waiting on. I told them not to bother sending it and please credit my account. We'll see how that goes. For some reason, I expect it to be a big headache.

To have something on th needles I started -- what else -- a pair of socks. I had this Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the colorway Mineshaft that I'd bought at The Knitting Nest several weeks ago. When I bought it, all I saw were the dark colors. Now that I'm knitting with it, all I can see is a rosy-greyish color that is dangerously close to (gasp!) pink! Sorry, Janna and Staci, but I'm scared! Tell me it's not too pink.

I'm using a pattern from the six-stitch pattern section in Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks called Chain Rib. I thought that an industrial-sounding yarn color should probably go with this industrial-sounding ribbing. It's kind of hard to see the chain shape to me -- mostly because the "links" seem to be lining up with the color striping for the time being. So far, no problem with pooling. I'll keep my fingers crossed. I love working with this yarn.

Jeff and I are headed for Miami on Saturday for a week of music and singing at the 2008 Gala Festival of Choruses. I'm going to take this sock to work on, but somehow I don't think I'll feel like doing much knitting in the semi-tropics. I will have plenty of free time, though. Maybe I could scope out a local yarn shop? Do people even knit in Miami?

Treads

I finished the Treads socks this morning. I'm not sure what I think.

I liked working with the yarn (roughly 45% wool, 45% cotton and 10% chemicals), but I just wasn't jazzed about the construction. I've probably complained about this before. Working double-wrapped heels in top-down construction wasn't bad, but working the toe the same way was weird. I got weird bulges around the sides of my toe knuckles (call me, Oprah -- I can set you up!) and I didn't fancy doing Kitchener stitch over 36 stitches across the soles.

But I did. The kicker is I didn't have to. I could have done a normal toe and I would have been much happier with these socks. But I can be a bit of a slave to the pattern, sometimes. Knitting is all about branching out, right? True, but sometime you have to know when to say, "no." This was one of those occasions.

Still waiting on some back-ordered yarn to get started on the piano bench cushion I want to make. This is taking forever. I went by Gauge yesterday and found that they had just ordered some Euroflax in the color I'm waiting on. They've got my email, and if it gets here before the back-ordered stuff ships, I'm canceling with the back-order lady. Enough is enough. It's been six weeks!

I engaged in a little retail therapy while knitting at The Knitting Nest on Saturday morning. Stacy had just received a shipment of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the colorway Franklin's Panopticon -- part of their new line of colorways based on famous bloggers.

I consider myself a bit color-challenged. I'm not color blind, but I don't trust my instincts when it comes to matching colors. I like this, though. Some bright colors to take me out of my comfort zone, but mixed with enough soothing beiges and browns to keep my from hyperventilating. See this post at Franklin's blog for some insight into how this colorway came about. Can't wait to see what this looks like all knit up.

Summertime Blues

When there's no knitting, there's no posting.

I've been on a real reading kick, and I've been using more spare time between the pages of books rather than at the needles. I did work on the Treads Socks last weekend while at the in-laws. I managed to finish, and then realized that I had made them to short. Last night, I frogged the toe and started over.

The strange thing about this pattern is that it's worked from the top down, but it uses short-row construction for the heels and toes. This means the Kitchener join is across the sole of the foot on half the stitches. Which, in my case, equals 36 Kitchener stitches. Fun! I started over last night and go to the tip of the toe, just before starting the double-wrap back down under the toe. I've tried it on, and I'm happier with the length.

Otherwise, I'm still waiting on some back-ordered yarn so that I can get started on the piano bench cushion I've been itching to start. I'm also eying Brooklyn Tweed's beautiful garter stitch blanket as a possible Christmas gift idea. I think his crochet seaming and i-cord edging look awesome.

To share a bit more about my summer, Jeff and I went to the Dallas Museum of Art and the Nasher Sculpture Center last weeked. We did see a nice exhibit of landscapes by James Onderdonk featuring his bluebonnet paintings, but we spent most of our time at the sculpture center. Below are a few pictures of some of the cool stuff that caught our eye.

All in the Family

There's a glimmer of hope for the possibility of the existence of a knitting gene. Today, at the biennial Weaver-Armstrong family reunion, I found a relative who knits!

This is Debbie Tasker Major of Colorado. We are second cousins -- we share a set of great-grandparents. Our grandmothers were sisters.

During the reunion, we always have a silent auction of crafts and other homemade (mostly) items to help pay for the barbecue and the hall. This year's selection included everything from Texas history books that mentioned our family, to my Aunt June's delicious fig preserves (for which I was outbid) to baby blankets, to handsewn handbags. However, this year, my eye was caught by a hand-knitted and felted bag. I didn't recognize the name, but made a note to keep my eye open. Just before lunch, I saw the unmistakable hand motions of knitting from across the room, and made a note to chat later.

After things slowed down in the afternoon, I finally got to introduce myself. Debbie was working on a patchwork blanket that she is doing as a knit-along with a friend. Every time one of them knits a square, they knit two of the same pattern. Then, at the end, they'll have the same squares to stitch together to make a blanket. And although they are using the same squares and the same yarn color scheme, they can stitch the squares together however they want. I think this is a great idea. They're using Jan Eaton's 200 Knitted Blocks for the patterns. Some neat stuff in there.

We talked about how we got started knitting and chit-chatted about yarns and needles. So while I didn't knit on World Wide Knit in Public Day, I did get to talk about knitting in public today -- and with a newly-discovered relative. Thanks, Debbie -- I had a great time visiting with you today.

And now to think of a project to knit for the 2010 reunion!....

Treads and Linen Threads

I finished the Kohle Socks this past weekend, and since I was waiting on a package of yarn to come in the mail, I thought it prudent to jump on another pair of socks. I decided to pair this cool blue yarn with a pattern I'd been wanting to make for a while.

The pattern is called "Treads" and it's from Debbie Stoller's Son of Stitch 'n Bitch. The original calls for much much thinner yarn. It recommends casting on 100 stitches on size 0 needles. I was okay with size 0s, but I couldn't imagine castin on 100 stitches with any yarn I had around. So I'm changing the pattern up a little to work with this yarn -- 72 stitches. The circumference is right, but the cables are a bit larger than they are in the original. When they stretch out, the make little O's. And the yarn is 45% cotton, so I'm thinking that maybe this pair will have more versatility than some of my more wooly socks.

The package I mentioned earlier came in the mail today. It's Louet Euroflax linen yarn. I had a gift certificate from my sister-in-law that I hadn't used and which made this purchase affordable. Three of the four colors have arrived -- the cream-colored hanks will come later. These are destined for something completely different -- a piano bench cushion. If you have a copy of Mason-Dixon knitting, you can see what it's supposed to look like on page 42. My piano bench hasn't had a cushion on it for nearly 20 years. More about this later...

Franklin

World-famous knitter and graphic artist Franklin Habit was in Austin this weekend. He brought his 1000 Knitters Project on the road, and I volunteered to help The Knitting Nest host his visit. What a day!

I showed up bright and early -- two hours before the shop opened -- to help get ready, blowing up balloons, etc. There were already people waiting in the parking lot! Franklin got there an hour early and got set up to start taking pictures. Since shop employees and volunteers were there first, we had our pictures taken first.

For reasons possibly related to the massive amounts of caffeine I'd ingested, I was very shaky during the knitting. Franklin asked some questions about how I got started, and before I knew it I was relaxed and knitting away on the extremely long scarf to which all of the knitters are contributing. He said we could knit whatever we wanted, but did ask that we try to keep the same number of stitches on the needle. I just knitted straight across, but the person before added a whole bunch of YOs, so the scarf quickly expanded in width. Future viewers should be able to find the "double-wide" section from Austin.

I don't know how he does it, but he had a very relaxing approach that put people at ease rather quickly. I enjoyed listening in on the stories people told as they talked to Franklin while being photographed. I can't wait to see this book when it comes out. Franklin's first book is due out soon.

The day went well, with a steady stream of people in the morning, a bit of a convenient lull around lunchtime, and then a bit more relaxed in the afternoon. We had time to sit around and knit -- I finished my Kohle socks with much help from Entrelac for helping with a tapestry needle, scissors and a wonky stitch that she tamed with extreme skill. We snacked, got to chat with Franklin, a coffee run was made (like I needed it). I got to meet tons of fun knitters that I've never met before. A most excellent way to spend the day.



Then, after the shoot was over and the shop was closed for the day, even more fun. Stacy asked Franklin if he would draw a picture of Dolores on a wall in the store. And we got to watch it happen. Franklin said it was the largest drawing of Dolores he had ever attempted. It's so perfect. From the bird on her head, to the figure of Hank in her arms, to the little Knitting Nest birds on her, um, caftan(?), it's marvelous. Here are some pictures of Franklin at work...







And then we had barbecue, courtesy of Stacy and David. Jeff brought some potato salad we'd made, and others brought bread and slaw and beer and all kinds of other yumminess. We all had a wonderful meal, surrounded by wonderful people and beautiful yarn. How fun is that? I think everyone who was there would agree that this was a truly special day. We'll have to do it again sometime!

Kool Haat

I finished the Koolhaas Hat this weekend. I can't believe I did this in only five days. It seems that most of my recent projects have languished interminably -- it was nice to be able to knock one out fairly quickly.

I loved this pattern. It looks complicated, but is fairly simple to follow. In fact, it looks way harder to make than it is.

The pattern called for a slightly smaller yarn than I used, the result being a hat this is almost too big for my ginormous head. The ribbing comes down a little further than I would like, making me look a bit like Tony Curtis dressed as Josephine in Some Like It Hot. I'm going to have to practice pursing my lips.

Note to self: Explore possible reasons why I knit things that look like pineapples.

Enchanted

Jeff and I went hiking at Enchanted Rock State Natural Area today. We had been wanting to do something beyond the around-town walking we'd been doing during the break, and Jeff had never been to Enchanted Rock. We tried to go years ago, but we picked a date when it was closed for hunting(!) I suspect that has something to do with this place being labeled a "State Natural Area" rather than a "State Park." We took a windy route, heading out to Johnson City and then taking Ranch Roads and county roads through places like Willow City and Crabapple. I lost count of the cattle guards we crossed.

It was lovely today, if a bit windy. And by "a bit windy," I mean gale-force winds that nearly knocked us down and did some very goofy things to our floppy hats. We both had to chase our hats at various times -- luckily, they never landed in any prickly pears. We started by hiking around the park on the 4 mile loop trail, and then we went up to the top.





I first visited Enchanted Rock nearly 30 years ago, when it was still in private hands. I remember the way to the top was indicated by spray-painted arrows directly on the rock. Times change -- no more spray-paint, and it took me a little more huffing and puffing to get to the top. Still, we beat some teenagers, which did my (figurative) heart good. My actual heart took a bit of a beating. Afterwards we headed to Fredericksburg and grabbed some lunch and a Cowboy Cookie from Rather Sweet Bakery, then headed home.





Oh yeah, this is a knitting blog. The Kohle Socks are still underway. They are about 75% done, but I'll save any pictures for when they are completed. And yesterday I got a bee in my bonnet to work on a Koolhaas Hat. I've had one in mind since I got a copy of the Holiday Special Interweave Knits last winter. I picked a slightly thicker and cheaper yarn than the yak (yes, yak) that the pattern calls for, so I'm going to have to do some modifying. Mostly, I'm going to make the ribbing a little shorter than called for and will perhaps repeat the pattern one less time than instructed. We'll see. There is lots of cabling, but since it's only one stitch held either forward or back, I can handle it without a cable needle. And all the knit stitches are knit through the back of the loop to make the cables pop more.

I'm using Mission Falls 1824 Wool (superwash merino) for this. I've always admired this when I've seen it in shops. Love the colors. It would make an awesome, if a bit pricey, sweater. I seriously need to do a color check with my camera. This is very ashy-grey looking, whereas the actual color (Heath) is a deep, dark green. Green and blue seem to be screwed up on my camera.

This is a really neat design. And it warms my still-rapidly-beating heart to think that the design of this hat was inspired by a library.

Hanky Panky

Thursday morning, I met Hank.

Yes, he's just as cute as he looks in this picture. If not more so. I think Jeff and I woke him up from a nap when we got to the store. He was moving kind of slow and letting out some squeaky little yawns. But he was soon in full puppy form, chewing on shoe-laces, sniffing shoes and putting up with a lot of luvin'. Personality plus, we'd say. I'm really looking forward to watching him grow up in the store. Right before we left, Stephanie showed up to pick up where we left off. I imagine he's not going to be lacking attention for quite some time!

Oh, and since we were in the shop, I picked up some more Cascade 220 to make a pair of clogs for Jeff. I'm going to use the same navy color for the cuff and the sole as I used on my pair, but the top color is going to be a gray-ish blue.

And the Kohle Socks are moving right along. Most patterns I have call for doing the decreases for the gussets one stitch over from the end of the row. I think for aesthetic (and possibly structural) reasons, it's not a good idea to decrease on first or last stitch on the needle. However, following the instructions, I found that this gave me a 3-knit-stitch rib on the outer edges of the instep, instead of a 2-knit-stitch rib, like all the others. So the instep ended up looking like:

k3, p2, k2, p2.....p2, k2, p2, k3

Then, I had a revelation. Since I was doing this using magic loop, and not on dpns, I could move the decrease over one stitch. I was in the middle of a needle, so it didn't matter. And this would give me 2x2 ribbing all the way across the instep. Duh! So, at the point of almost having finished the gusset decreases, I decided to rip back. Mayhem ensued. Stitches were dropped. Curse words were muttered. I ended up having to rip back to the cuff and re-doing the heel flap, the turn AND the gusset. Sigh.

I like the big wide stripes. The heel and turn almost totally took up a brown and a black section, except for a half a round that came across the instep. You can see this in the picture. Rats. But the Eye-of-Partridge heel worked out pretty well. Kind of hard to see, but I know it's there.

Kohle Mine

It didn't take long to find a new project.

This is the beginning of a pair of socks knit with Austermann Step -- the stuff with jojoba and aloe vera in it. I'm not sure if I buy that this guards against dry skin (the foot version of this?), but I like wide-striped socks and this one has just the dark and gloomy colors I love. The colorway, #23, is called Kohle, which the Google translator renders into English as Coal. Here's a tiny picture of what it looks like all knit up. I'm just doing a basic 2x2 rib sock on size 1 needles, with 72 stitches cast on. I'll probably carry ribbing down the top of the instep, and I'm thinking of doing an Eye of Partridge heel. I've only done that once before, and they were on the one pair of socks I've given away.

We're on break between semesters, so I had a wonderful time being lazy and knitting. The weather was nice enough that I could do quite a bit outside -- until the mosquitoes found me. Still fishing around for a "big" project to work on. And I know that I have to get down to The Knitting Nest sometime this week to meet the new store dog, Hank!

Classics Rocked

I finished the Classic Socks today. I didn't expect to when I started idly knitting this morning. I fiddled with them for a while, then went for a walk down to Lady Bird Lake with Jeff, fixed some lunch, made a weed wiper (courtesy of our local county extension agent's website) so I could selectively poison some irritating flora, did a little weeding, watered some plants, weed-wiped aforesaid flora, took a shower (finally!), and then sat down (many many hours later) to pick up where I'd left off.

When I counted, it turns out I'd bypassed the starting point for the toe decreases by four rounds. That so rarely happens with me -- I'm usually counting and re-counting and can't wait until the "boring part" of the sock is done. A little frogging was in order, but before I knew it, toes were decreased, eight remaining stitches were Kitchenered, and I had new springtime green socks on my feet.

So now I'm in limbo again. I've got some things I'd like to start, but don't have the yarn for them. And I'm not exactly in the mood for shopping for yarn. I'm confident this little block will pass quickly, but until then, I'll be flipping through Ravelry, books and magazines. Oh, and I'll probably get some socks started, if for not other reason to have something going. When I said I don't have yarn, I meant non-sock yarn. As my friend Stephanie says, sock yarn doesn't count as stash. Everyone knows that, right?

Nature note: Today, a turtle peed on my foot.