Not So Much on the Road, but Knitting Anyway

I'm supposed to be in Toronto right now. I had some meetings to attend, and was planning to spend a little recreational knitterly time with Glenna and Martha. But alas, a snowstorm interrupted my plans, and my flight was canceled. Given the level of service that Air Canada has become known for around these parts, they were unable to reschedule me to fly within a reasonable period (i.e. before the date when I was supposed to return!), so I'm grounded at home. Too bad, as I was really looking forward to visiting the Purple Purl and also shopping for new hiking boots - the shopping options in St. John's are somewhat limited.

It hasn't been all bad though. I got to go snowshoeing yesterday in the aftermath of the storm - finally we have enough snow. Also, I've been attending those meetings by teleconference. I can't knit at when I'm there in person, but when I'm attending from my couch at home, there are no such limitations. I knit a whole sock yesterday, and nobody on the other end of the speakerphone knew any better.

Stripey socks, improvised pattern, 70 st in stockinette on 2.25 mm bamboo dpns.

I also seamed up my finished Trellis baby cardigan this week.

Trellis, knitted in Lion Brand Cotton Ease, on 4 mm and 4.5 mm circs.

My only change to this pattern was to knit the bands at the bottom and sleeves on a smaller needle size. Looking at photos on Ravelry, I noticed that a lot of people ended up with bigger, puckered moss stitch bands, and there's still a hint of that in mine, that I'm hoping a final blocking will take care of (I blocked the pieces once already, prior to seaming). I think the smaller needle size helped to reduce the puckering significantly. If I were to knit this again, I would do the fronts and back in one piece up to the armholes. There are a lot of bulky seams for such a small sweater, that could be reduced.

I rushed to get this finished because I was going to see the intended recipient in Toronto this weekend. I guess now I'll have to mail it. Just as soon as I get some buttons.

Boring

Isn't it funny how knitting mimics life sometimes?

Case in point: a photo of my desk today:


I've been studying for months for a big exam tomorrow morning. It's the professional practice and ethics exam, which all candidate engineers and geoscientists in Canada have to pass to be considered professionals, as apparently, having a Ph.D. in geology does not qualify me, legally speaking, to call myself a geologist! Pretty dry stuff, most of which applies far more to the engineers than to the geoscientists. (There are far fewer of us, so we get lumped into the same process).

My post-gnome-invasion knitting is equally boring this week (refer to plain stockinette sock above). I have had a few false starts. I knit one Delicato mitt out of some sock yarn leftovers, and then when the suspicion that I was running out of yarn was confirmed by the digital scale, I frogged it. Then I tried starting a second JoJo sweater, but after trying several combinations of colours and patterns from the stash (one self-striping yarn that looked red in the ball was looking very pink knit up, totally unsuitable for the little boy I intended it for!), I couldn't find anything that worked together at all. So I stuck my hand in the sock yarn bin at random, pulled out a ball, and started these plain vanilla stripey socks. When all else fails, I usually revert to stripes.

I'm also knitting a sweater for my brother, which right now is just a big tube of unphotogenic grey stockinette - equally uninspiring blog material.

I'll have to work on getting something more intersting on the go, for fear of boring myself to death. Maybe when this exam is over, I'll be feeling a bit more creative. Then again, once the exam is over, I won't have to procrastinate so much on studying, so I'll probably slow down to my normally slow blogging rate again.

Wish me luck!

July catch-up

Wow, I was doing really well there for a while with the blogging regularly, and then June happened....

My most recent adventure was a five-day camp with my Pathfinder Unit (Pathfinders are Girl Guides aged 12-15, and I have been so lucky to have ended up with the most amazing group of girls!). Even though the weather was crap-tastic and cold, we had a lot of fun. More adventures are planned this summer with a couple of weekend backpacking trips coming up.

So, back to the main theme of this blog... what am I knitting these days?

My main focus has been my Mystery Stole 3, which I abandoned last summer somewhere around my second house move. I picked it up again a couple of weeks ago, and it is now my concentration knitting in front of the tv. Unfortunately, it just looks like a big black blob, so I haven't photographed it in a while. Further updates to come.

My mindless travel knitting has been this plain stripey sock. I bought the yarn on a whim on my last trip to Wool Trends, mostly because I loved the colourway - these are definitely my colours. The yarn is called Boston, and the company is Wisdom Yarns. I'd never heard of it before, but it's very similar in structure and price to Regia and Jawoll sock yarns. Nothing too special, but gee, I do love those blues and greens! Just one more sock to go.


I was actually at Wool Trends to pick up this:


It's a Lady of the Lake jacket kit by Fleece Artist. I had been admiring these at my LYS for some time, but the only colour they had left was a bright turquoise. It was way too loud for my taste. But then I found out that Fleece Artist will custom dye kits to order, and that was just too amazing to pass up. This colourway is called Paris, and I chose it by looking through a piles of skeins of SeaSilk. It came out a little brighter than I expected in the kit (though still not quite as bright as it looks in this photo), but I think it will look great when the colours all get mixed up together. I haven't examined the pattern too closely yet, but I think that it's knit holding together strands of the two different yarns together - Curly Locks (or the right) and Kid Aran (on the left). Now I just need to decide which to start first, this or my Ivy League Vest.

Something I've been doing over the last months is trying to catch up on all those things that I wouldn't allow myself to do while I was finishing my thesis. It's been a strange experience, catching up with the rest of the world on a number of fronts. I finally read the last Harry Potter novel (Sigh. So good. Hard to believe it's all over), and continuing the trend of being last to the party, i joined Ravelry. I've actually been on there for a few weeks now, but I haven't had time to do too much with my page yet. Come find me if you haven't already - I'm KBH over there.

I've had several requests for kitty photos, so I'll try to get some of those soon. Lassy is doing well, and has started going outside now. He seems very happy running about the neighbourhood and checking out the neighbour's garden.

I can't promise that I'll be updating the blog too frequently in the coming weeks. I've got a business trip to western Newfoundland this week, and off to Calgary the following week. Hopefully I get lots of plane knitting accomplished anyway! I'll leave you with a FO photo of my latest Swallowtail. I gave it to Nick's grandmother on her 80th birthday. As a life-long knitter, I think she appreciated it.

Jitterbugging

A couple of friends have been waiting to hear the story of a particular skein of yarn. Last summer, when I was still living in Ottawa. Leanne and Nancy introduced me to Wool 'N Things, a very posh little yarn boutique in the far east end of the city. At the time, my yarn budget as a grad student was pretty tight, so it was a rather dangerous excursion and my wallet did take quite a dent that day.

Aside from a few wonderful bits of silk (which I still haven't gotten up the courage or inspiration to touch), we each bought a different colourway of Colinette Jitterbug. I believe that they have both already made socks out of theirs. That was my plan too - a plain pair of ribbed socks to show off the gorgeous colour. Knowing that people tend to have yardage issues with this yarn, I got out my kitchen scale, and dutifully wound the skein into two equal balls. I even swatched, which I rarely bother with for socks. Even though the yarn is plump, I liked my swatch on 2.25 mm needles best, and decided to knit a pair of nice, dense, warm socks.

I got about this far (yes, that's a heel flap on a rather short sock):


When it became quite evident that, A) I was not going to have enough yarn left for a foot, and B) I wasn't really fond of the way the beautiful water-coloury variegation was pooling in diagonal stripes.

Hmm, what to do....

Rip it out and knit gloves!


Somehow, I have ended up with several pairs of mittens in my collection lately, but not a single pair of gloves to my name - a situation soon to be rectified. I'm completely winging it on 2.5 mm needles (2.25 mm for the ribbed cuff), and it looks like I'll even have a little bit of yarn left over. Phew.

The yarn is so pretty that I'm going to miss it when I'm done knitting!

Done!

Surprizing even myself, I finished my dad's socks in record time. They were done on Wednesday. Man, I should knit in worsted weight more often!

Men's plain stockinette socks (no pattern), in Red Heart McIntosh, 48 st on size 3.75 mm dpns

I used a regular gusset heel with an eye-of-partridge heel flap. This type of heel is really easy (simple instructions here), and turns out just as thick and sturdy as the more common slip-stitch heel.

The yarn (30% wool, 70% acrylic) was a little underwhelming, but that's what you get for buying emergency yarn supplies late at night at Walmart! Speaking of which, all three Walmarts in the St. John's area are now open 24 hours... I wonder how long that's going to last?!

I'm making good progress on the Gatsby Girl, now well into the herringbone lace pattern, and inching closer to the shoulder shaping. It still looks small to me, but it's very stretchy, so I'm going to trust the pattern measurements and my gauge and keep chugging along.


I went to a fun knitting lecture last night at The Rooms, a beautiful new facility that houses the Provincial Museum, Art Gallery, and Archives. Shirley Scott gave a really fun talk on traditional Newfoundland knitting. So nice to see someone else interested in promoting our local knitting heritage. I spoke with Shirley briefly after her presentation, and I hope I'll get to meet her and more local knitters soon at a knit night gathering. I have finally tracked down a local knit night (this Sunday!) and I'm going to try to make it out.

A wee break for mansocks

The realization hit yesterday that my dad's birthday is only a week away. He is notoriously hard to shop for, but he has always loved a good pair of socks.

Sweater knitting has been put on hold for a few days while I whip up a quick pair of mansocks. I'm not falling into the trap of eternal fine-gauge mansocks this time though! As he likes thick socks for his work boots, and I'm on a tight schedule, it's worsted weight this time around. A speedy 48-stitch sock in strictly utilitarian acrylic-wool blend. I would have liked to have used superwash wool, but couldn't find any on short notice (this is not a city where soft superwash merino grows on trees like it seems to do in places like Toronto!). And in this particular gift situation, hand-wash only socks would be a curiosity akin to having a bowl of fruit on display that is not meant to be eaten. Completely illogical.


This is the morning's progress while lounging in front of the TV. At this rate, I'll be done by Tuesday. Wish me luck!

Year-end FOs (in Knitting and Life)

2007 has been rather a monumental year for me - finally moving home after so many years away, buying our first house and car, starting a career. I feel incredibly blessed by the good fortune that has come my way. It has been very exciting, yet stressful at times. Mostly, I have felt very disorganized and scatter-brained, no doubt resulting from moving twice and living out of boxes for the better part of the fall.

Things are finally starting to come together. The unpacking is mostly done, and the first floor is exactly as we want it. With the recent addition of furniture, if I may borrow from the knitting jargon, I'm now happy to declare the living room an FO:


We now look forward to painting some of the upstairs rooms and feeling a little more settled in the new year.

A few other recent FOs to report on. The interminable Brigit socks have finally been completed, and were gifted at a family gathering yesterday.

Brigit socks (link to pdf), in Meilenweit wool, 2.25 mm bamboo dpns. Altered the heel to an "eye of partridge" heel flap.

Also known as the "Smurfy Cables", these socks were the cause of much blue dye staining my hands over the last few months. I started them on a train trip from Toronto to Ottawa, and the first sock came very easily. However, I tried taking the second sock out to knit night, and it proved to be wholly incompatible with anything that distracted my attention even remotely. The repeating cable pattern is the same every time, and really shouldn't be that difficult, but every time I started feeling comfortable with it, I would cross a cable the wrong way, or turn the heel and then realize that I had mistakenly added an extra pattern repeat before the heel. Soon the Smurfy cables became the cursed cables.... Nancy and Leanne can attest that even a couple of weeks ago, as I was attempting to turn the heel for the third time, these were still giving me grief. I'm happy to see them finished, and I really like the way they turned out. Surprisingly, I think I would even knit these again for myself, but would make them a little longer. The yarn? The Meilenweit is a perfectly serviceable wool sock yarn, but not destined to become a favourite of mine. It just didn't do it for me, you know?

I've been off work over the holidays, and decided to finally organize my stash closet. I rediscovered all kinds of treasures that I had forgotten about. Among them was the end of a cone of very furry mohair blend that I bought on a whim at Woof Designs last summer (mostly a machine-knitting sweater business, they sell off their cone ends and discontinued yarns by weight. I always love to pop in and see what new on the yarn shelf at the back). Inspired by the cold snowy weather we've been having, I decided that I needed some very warm mitten for the daily trek through the snow to work.


These were knit holding together a strand of the mohair (burgandy) with Elann.com Peruvian Pure Alpaca (sherwood forest). Together, it gave a bulky weight, and and incredibly dense, warm, fuzzy fabric. These may well be the warmest knitted mittens ever - and much less bulky than my thrummed mitts.

The biggest FO of the year though, is my Ph.D. thesis. I was in Ottawa for my defense on December 13, and my presentation and oral exam went very well. The corrections were minimal, so I managed to get them all finished and submit the final copies before the week was out. It was all a bit anticlimactic really, as I had worked myself up into a nervous frenzy over it, and since we were heading into the holidays and many of my friends had already graduated and left, there weren't really many people around to celebrate with. More than anything, it brings me an enormous sense of relief to be finished. No more guilt over procrastinating, no more self-doubt about whether my work is good enough. It was wonderful, for the first time in 11 years, to be able to sit back this Christmas with my family and know that there would be no more term papers or exams, no more frantic late nights at the library, no more frustrating encounters with university administration (perhaps that last one is a little premature - I haven't got my diploma yet!). But I have regained a lot of peace and sanity these past couple of weeks, and hopefully I'm a nicer person to be around than I have been recently!

This year, the new year brings a lot of opportunity, as I have re-gained a lot of energy and free time to devote to non-academic pursuits. I plan to get myself off the couch a little more (off to research gym memberships this afternoon), and I will finally get around to checking out the class offerings at the Anna Templeton Centre, a fantastic textile arts centre just around the corner. My sister-in-law is even interested in taking a pottery class with me. I may do a little more volunteering, and I also have a little freelance writing project that I'm anxious to get working on.

I would like to wish everyone a very happy new year, and may your knitting continue to bring you joy in 2008.

FOs and the start of the tour

Ah, it feels good to finish something. Especially when it feels as though the unpacking and organizing of the new house will never end. A couple of little FO's to show today.

Here's the Swallowtail shawl, finally blocked and dried, and looking lovely if I do say so myself. I'm very happy with how this turned out.


And, at long last, I have finished the Tofutsies socks.

Ribby cable socks (my own design) in Tofutsies. 72 st on 2 mm needles.

I have been dragging these around with me since the summer, mostly as commuting knitting. Squeezed in between other projects, they seemed to drag on forever. The ribbing is K4 P2 cable2 P2, although the detail of it is rather obscured by the striping.


I can't say I'm particularly fond of this yarn. I heard good things about it, so I tried it when it became available at my LYS. To me, it's not much different from cotton, and I am not a fan of cotton socks. It's also fairly dense, and not very stretchy, so I think the socks would pool around my ankles after a couple of hours. These are going to be a Christmas gift for someone with slightly skinnier calves who I think will get a kick out of the colours.

In other business, I promised you a tour of the house. There still aren't many parts of it that are fit to be photographed. We have open and emptied most of the cardboard boxes at this point, but there is still a lot of clutter sitting around, each item waiting to be given its designated place. And we certainly haven't gotten around to details like hanging up the artwork. So, if you'll excuse the clutter, I'll show you my office:


Here's the part I know you'll love.... built-in yarn storage!


Have I mentioned that I love this place?

Now, I hope you'll bear with me for another couple of weeks of scarce postings. I'm off to Ottawa next week for my Ph.D. defense, and that means I have a presentation to prepare, studying to do, and general nervousness and self doubt to get over. Moreso than wanting to do well, I just want to get this over with and never have to think about it ever again. Wish me luck!

Off across the pond.

Well, that didn't take long. I'm off on my first business trip to the UK tomorrow, on rather short notice. Ordinarily, I'd be very excited, but I just have so much to do right now! Hopefully I'll get a bit of free time in the evenings to catch up on the non-work commitments that I've been neglecting a bit lately.

I'd love to hear if anyone has suggestions for a good yarn shop in Manchester though. (Sarah?) Surely I can make time for a little souvenier yarn!

Before I get off to start packing, here's a quick update on what I've been working on lately:


My Mystery Stole, at the end of Clue 4. I've decided to be an old stick in the mud and to make a more traditional symmetrical stole - the original pattern is a bit more, um, artistic than something that I'm likely to wear. I'm opting for the alternate instructions which means I have to knit another whole piece like this, and then join them via a knitted panel in the centre. I've already started on the other half. I'm really enjoying knitting it. The beads are a bit irritating to work with, but I think the effect is worth it. I have resigned myself to the fact that this is going to be a long-term project, to be worked on when I have time to fully concentrate on it. I'm not going to hurry it.

And, as always, there is a pair of socks on the needles. This is the first one completed.


The yarn is Tofutsies, which I picked up at Yarn Forward in Ottawa just before I left. I like the way the striping works out on these, but I'm still not sure if I'll keep them for myself. I'm not a huge fan of cotton in my socks, but this blend is a little different from what you usually find.

These will be traveling with me next week, and I will probably bring along my gorgeous skein of Collinette Jitterbug as a back-up in case I finish this pair. I haven't managed to dig out the Jitterbug to photograph it yet, but the colours just take my breath away. So pretty.

One advantage of being so busy and frazzled lately is that I haven't been feeling the need to start any new projects. I steal a few moments to work on my WIPs when I can, but I don't have the free time to browse patterns and daydream about yarn purchases like I used to. My new Interweave Knits came in the mail this week though, and I have flagged the Tangled Yoke Cardigan and the Mirepoix Bodice for future knitting, probably substituting Knit Picks yarn for the latter. I am impressed with this issue, much more so than the last couple.

I'm not likely to be updating from the road next week, but I'll try to take some good photos of my travels to share when I return. 'Til next time!

Another sock-filled post

There has been a bit of a sock-knitting binge lately here at Hedgehog Knits. I tend to go through moods with socks. Sometimes I find them incredibly tedious and boring, and I let second-sock syndrome take over. I can let them languish unfinished for months on end. And then at other times, I have three or four pairs on the go at once and want to knit nothing but socks. I think it has a lot to do with having a fun pattern and a nice yarn. When I get that perfect combination, I just don't want to put them down.

This pair, just completed, is a rather simple, quick gift for a friend:

Basic 3X1 rib socks with stockinette foot. 68 stitches on 2.25 mm bamboo dpns, in Garnstudio's Fabel Superwash.

This is the first time I have knit with Garn's yarn and it's a really nice sock yarn - very soft and fairly squishy, and for a reasonable price. I really wish that it came in more solid colours, because like many people, I really have gotten over the jacquard patterns by now. The company's website only shows three solids, in beige, brown, and grey, amongst a wide range of jacquards. I will definitely check out their other yarns in future. This particular pair of socks is going to be delivered to my friend D who is spending the summer doing field work in the mountains of British Columbia. When I was doing bush work, I always loved to get letters from home delivered by the helicopter pilot, and a care package of little luxuries was the most exciting thing ever. I'm sending the two things you can never have enough of in any field camp - wool socks and chocolate!

And then there's this odd pair. I suppose I should get to work and make another pair just like it.

Bayerishe (left) and Brigit (pdf; right).

Peg mentioned in the comments that I seem to be buying a lot of solid yarns lately and wondered if I was tiring of handpainted yarns. I can't say that I'm tired of them really, since I haven't actually knit with a lot of handpainted. Partly that's because my LYS's don't really carry much in the way of handpainted options, except for the locally made Apple Laine, which as I've discussed before, I'm not particularly happy with. I know that there are plenty of mail-order options out there, but the other factor is price. Most of the beautiful handpainted sock yarns that I really covet, I find on US e-tailers' sites, where of course I would have to deal with exchange rate, international shipping rates, and the possibility of paying duty at the border. And then there's the fact that I like to knit socks with complex cabled and textured patterns, and though I see a lot of people knitting such patterns with bright variegated yarns, I really think they show up better in solid or semi-solid colours. Ditto for lace shawls. I think that I'll probably try dyeing my own sock yarn sometime soon. I like the idea of graduated shades of a single colour.

No Smurfs were harmed in the making of these socks

I had to do a little travelling this week. Nothing major, just a couple of short trips. I needed something small and portable to keep me busy, but the idea of trying to concentrate on the Bayerische socks on a train was not really appealing to me. (A good call, as it turns out, because I ended up sitting across from a bunch of loud and obnoxious people, and at times couldn't even hear the details of a podcast on my earphones over the racket!) So what did I do to try to take a break from tiny cables? Start another sock with tiny cables!


To be honest, I took along a ball of yarn, a few different patterns, and my recently obtained copy of Sensational Knitted Socks (finally, it is mine!), and took my time deciding. I ended up starting in on Brigit (link to pdf), a pattern from the Socktopia site (go take a look, there are several free patterns there. Click the "SE Patterns" link on the right.)

While the tiny cables may be similar to Bayerishe, there's a lot less cabling overall, and only one cable motif which I memorized pretty easily. My one critique of the pattern is that I would have preferred a chart to the written cable instructions. The instructions are very clear though, and the pattern, written for two circular needles, is easily adapted to dpns.


The yarn, Lana Grossa's Meilenweit sock yarn (80% new wool, 20% Polyamide) is a new one for me. I'd say it's pretty average sock yarn. It doesn't split badly, and is priced pretty reasonably, but it's a bit fuzzy, sort of like Lang Jawoll. This particular shade (1329) is very bright blue (I've been referring the sock as "Smurfy cables", as opposed to "Insanity cables", my pet name for the B socks). The excess dye appears to be turning my hands blue!


I'm going to have to be very careful about washing these socks! Do you suppose my feet will be blue too?

In other news, I have been aquiring new yarn at an alarming rate this week. My knitting group made a big combined order to Knit Picks, and I finally made it to The Knitting Centre downtown, which is going out of business after many years, and is currently selling everything at 50% off. For those of you in Ottawa, they plan to close at the end of July, but there's still some good stuff there including Regia sock yarns at less than $3 a ball. Unfortunately the circular needles are all gone now. And don't forget, it's an old fashioned cash-only operation. I'm considering one last trip there today... I'm awfully glad that I didn't officially join the Knit From Stash Challenge. I can take advantage of a great bargain without any guilt!

Sock acrobatics

I have finished the knitting and crochet edging on the Soleil tank top, but I want to wash and block it before I show it off. The Sonata cotton is nice, but it has a distinct chemical smell. I'm hoping a run through the wash will soften it up and rinse the scent out. So stay tuned for FO photos soon.

In the meantime, I gritted my teeth and tinked back a few rows to ressurect my Bayerische sock. Boy, I'm glad my eyesight is really good, because untwisting these tiny cables was quite a challenge. I may have uttered a few un-ladylike phrases in the process and threatened it with a pair of scissors. The sock and I both seem to have recovered from the whole experience now and are getting along alright once again.

I tried to take some photos this morning, and though I already knew how hard it is to get a good angle when photographing your own feet, the acrobatics of trying not to stab yourself while you wrestle five needles onto your foot was a whole new experience. So this is why lots of people prefer socks on circulars! Here are the best out of a bunch of blurry photos:

Side view.

Top view, with a flash (colour is close to true).

With only half as much cabling as the leg, the foot should zip along quickly. I am really enjoying the challenge of this pattern. If you are considering it, I would suggest a smooth, tightly spun yarn like Lorna's Laces. The Regia I'm using is nice but it's a little fuzzy, so it obscures the look of the cables a bit, and it does have a tendancy to split sometimes when executing the twists and cables. I also wish my needles were a little pointier.

Off to the office for my Saturday afternoon routine of thesis revisions and watching the campus groundhogs frolicking outside my window.

Thinking dry thoughts

Minor crisis averted: I finished the second sock last night and wet blocked it. It's almost dry now, and soaking up a few rays on the balcony to eliminate that last little bit of dampness. Then we're off to the post office.


A couple of extra skeins (Lassa Grossa sock yarn and some Koigu) followed me home from the yarn shop too. I had racked up enough frequent customer points to quailfy for a 15% discount, and since I'll be moving soon and won't have access to the store, I figured the responsible thing to do would be to make a big purchase to get the most out of my discount. I know you'd do the same thing ;)


I've been doing a little housekeeping on the blog over the last few days. The upcoming knits section has been divided into true upcoming knits, which I am actually planning to knit, and "up for consideration", meaning I haven't bougt the yarn or pattern yet, but I would really like to knit this sometime in the future. It's more or less a tool for me to flag these patterns and to keep a few projects in mind for when I see a good yarn sale and need to figure out how much to buy. Inspired by Martha's recent lingerie knitting, but warned of the difficulty of sizing bra tops, I've really fallen in love with the Rita Mae pattern. (The link goes to a pattern library, so it might take a bit of hunting around there if you want to look the pattern up. I couldn't get a more direct link.) It's shorts and a little cami that laces up the front (I'll bet I could add buttons), with pretty leaf lace patterns. Definitely something to keep in mind.

I want to eventually get a Flickr account and set up a Finished Objects gallery, get a little more organized, and get onto Bloglines. But I think I'll put all of these projects off for a while until my life settles down a little. Right now I don't want to take up any of my already scarce knitting time to start fussing with changes!

I hope the sun is shining wherever you are today too.

Oh for crying out loud!

I was so close. SO close. I need to get these socks in the mail asap for Father's Day, and I got halfway through the toe decreases before running out of yarn. Ack!


So I'm off on my bike for a stop at the LYS on the way to the office. I'll have to finish and block these tonight, and hope for good drying conditions. Wish me luck!

Home again

Well, I arrived safely back in Ottawa around 2:30 this morning, after only a three-hour flight delay in Winnipeg. By my standards, that's actually pretty good!

I didn't get too much knitting done in my travels. I knew that I had a very busy weekend conference ahead of me, but I didn't even knit much on the plane. I was so tired I slept most of the way back. I did get one man sock finished, and Nick was kind enough to model it:


His feet are a little bigger than Dad's, so it's a tad over-stretched in the ankle here. I like the striping in this yarn, but it's not a particularly regular stripe interval. I don't think it will be possible to get identical socks out of it - I don't remember the last time I managed to get identical twin socks out of a self-striping yarn anyway! It is turning out to be a little splitty to knit with. I added a strand of black reinforcing thread in the heel, but I forgot about it for the toe. It probably looks better without it in the end. On to sock number two.

I thought I'd photograph a few more of the knits I've done for Warm Woolies over the past few weeks.

Good Friend Cable Vest

Assorted hats. The top one is felted.

The box is getting fairly full, but I think I can still cram in another couple of hats and socks. Did you see that flash of fur in the hat photo above? We're kitty sitting this little cutie for a couple of weeks while our friends are on vacation.


I grew up always having a cat and a dog around the house, but Nick has never had a cat, so it's a fun new experience for him. So far so good!

Perspective

I went out to watch the National Capital Marathon on Sunday morning. My good friend D was running this, her third marathon in three years. After the first hour or so, it started to rain. Serious marthon spectating involves precision timing, driving around town for a few hours chasing the runners to a few different vantage points, finding parking, jumping out, waiting to catch sight of the person you're cheering amidst the thousands, hooting and hollering enthusiastic words of encouragement, and then heading back to the car to race to the next spot.

(Around km 25)

It was chilly and very wet, but somehow it didn't feel as bad as it normally would, because I was continually in awe of the insanity of thousands of people putting themselves through a 42-km run, in the cold and the rain. Many of them were unable to walk the next day, and are currently waiting for their bruised toenails to fall off. It's something I'll never experience - I am caught between admiration and just shaking my head wondering why anyone would do this for fun.

As for me, I'm doing a little travelling over the next few days. I'm taking the mansock out to see the Prairies, and we'll be spending the weekend in Regina. Let's hope he's got a twin by the time we head home.


See you next week.

Inspired by the sun

The wonderful, summer-like weather that we have been enjoying in Ottawa this week has got me thinking about summer knits. The time had come to break out the cotton I had stashed for a summer tank top.


This is the start of Soleil from Knitty.com. For once in my life, I'm actually using the yarn that the pattern is written for: Elann.com Sonata, in Lilac. It's actually on the pinker side of purple despite the very blue shade in the photo above. I haven't done a lot of knitting with cotton, other than dishcloths and some cotton-acrylic blends. It is a bit hard on the hands and wrists, as I've often heard. However the knitted fabric seems softer than the yarn in the skein. I suspect it will soften up even more with washing. I hope it fits, because I think I'm really going to like this top.

I also started a new sock yesterday. Marianne asked recently about the Bayerishe socks. In the interest of full disclosure, just after the last time you saw them, I made a huge mistake. I missed three out of four cable crosses in one round, and then continued for several rounds before I noticed the mistake. I can't fathom the idea of taking that crazy sock off the needles and ripping back - too many tiny twisted stitches to deal with! So I'm going to have to tediously tink back row by row. As I'm sure you can imagine, we needed a little time apart to get over this little inconvenience. I will get back to it as soon as I have the patience to deal with fixing it. In the meantime, I thought I would make my dad some socks for Father's Day.
The yarn in Meilenweit Mega Boots Stretch, which is a wool, polyamide, elite (elastic) blend with subtle colour shifts. This was the most "manly" colourway I could find at my LYS. I don't usually knit stockinette socks - I feel that ribbing helps them stay up better. This is a bit of an experiment to see how the elastic affects the knitted fabric. So far so good - although it's a bit slow. I'm knitting 78 st on 2.25 mm needles. I could have gone with bigger needles, I know, but the yarn is actually pretty fine when stretched out. Definitely finer that the Lorna's Laces that I just finished knitting. So to make a nice durable fabric, I kind of felt like it needed to be small. Next time I knit men's socks, I think I'll use DK yarn!

Birthday socks

Finally finished, and not a moment too soon! These socks have been a while coming, and I need to get them in the mail today for my sister-in-law's birthday.


Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, colourway Bucks Bar
Needles: 2.25 mm bamboo dpns
Pattern: toe-up, loosely based on Widdershins from Knitty.

I basically followed the patten for the heel and toe methods, but increased the numer of stitches to 76 (which required a bit of number-juggling to figure out the heel proportions), and added the cable rib pattern on the leg. I do love little 2-stitch cables. Oh, and I used the stretchy sewn bind-off, with instructions here.


This is my first time knitting with Lorna's yarn, and now I understand why it is so popular. It's such a lovely, springy texture and the gauge suits my preferences nicely. The yardage is also great. These are pretty big socks, and I had lots left over. I could certinly get a pair of men's socks out of two skeins. I will definitely buy it again.

It's also my first toe-up pair, and while I no longer feel intimidated by it, I don't think that this is going to become my favourite method. It just doesn't feel natural to me, as I've become so used to top-down that I hardly have to think about it. I tried a couple of different heels before I settled on this one - all involving a heel flap of some sort - and I still like this one, which is basically just a top-down heel flap reverse-engineered to work backwards. The sewn bind-off looks great on the feet, but it kind of ruffles and looks a bit odd on the socks when they are off the feet.

Anyway, off to the post office to get these in the mail. I can't wait until we're living closer to family, and I don't have to rely on the oh-so-unpredictable Canada Post to do all of my gift deliveries!

Cabley goodness

I am now thoroughly addicted to knitting this sock. That didn't take long, now did it? Eunny's very clear instructions on cabling without a cable needle (written into the pattern) have really helped, although I have to admit I'm still using a cable needle for the big 7-st ribbed cables - that's just too many tiny little stitches to keep track of and it makes me nervous to have them flying free like that! But those cables only happen on every 8th row, so they don't slow me down too much.

I highly recommend this pattern for anyone looking for a bit of a challenge. At first it's a bit daunting, but once you get through one repeat, it kind of falls into place and makes sense. I do wish that I was a looser knitter though - my cables are pretty tight to work on 2 mm needles!

My other projects basically look the same, so no new photos today.

Things are looking very good on the job-after-graduation front these last few days. I'm still waiting for an official offer, but boy, am I excited! So I'm all the more motivated to finish the thesis. And on that note, I'm off to the office!

Second time's a charm?

Aha! I have managed to wrestle that unruly neckband into submission:


The solution was to switch to a smaller crochet hook, and to skip a few stitches while working around the neck. It's just a single row of single crochet, leaving out the second eyelet row that the pattern suggests. I think with a few small buttons, this will work nicely.

With that sorted out, I've gotten going on the first sleeve. How long it's going to be is still anyone's guess!


I've also started a new sock. Eunny's Bayerische Sock pattern is just about the most complicated cable pattern I've ever tried, and I'm having fun with it so far. With 96 stitches and intense concentration required, I can only do a few rows in one sitting. Here we are after the first 16 row-repeat.


I'm knitting it in Regia 4-ply, colour 536, which sadly is discontinued. I think this is my favourite sock yarn these days, not that I've tried a lot of the higher-end fancy ones. I really like the way it wears. One of my favourite pairs of hand knit socks is in this yarn. I've been wearing them non-stop for the last three years and they still look great. It doesn't pill or get fuzzy, and it feels nice on the feet.

I hope that this pattern is still intriguing when it comes time to knit the second sock. I have a feeling it's going to take a while!