Gothify (Photo heavy post)

Goth-i-fy--verb--to make gothy. To imbue an item with gothy properties. To make yarn like Gothsocks. To take a variegated, solid, or semi-solid skein of yarn, and overdye part of it to create stripes. Origin 2010. Variations gothy, goth, gothing, gothed, gothification.

Sample sentences:

"She is quite the gothify-enthusiast."
"Dude! I would totally gothify my pistazie for your feuerwanze!"
"Love this gothed-up yarn!"
"This would be awesome gothified."

Before/after of WM Frosch, gothing by thestarsandseas on ravelry.

Before/after of WM Pistazie, gothing and before-pic by jakey on ravelry

(These greens look similar in photos, but the upper is a bright green, and the next is a darker, khaki green)


And before/after of a gothhoard, gothed up by theotheramylee on ravelry, The Amy Lee Show on etsy.

Look at these pretties!

Let's get this started already!

I"ve been wanting to start another Jeanie all year now. I started experimenting in preparation for it in February.

A week ago, the time came to start my new Jeanie. Casting on turned out to be an adventure.

Casting on Take One:

• cast on 137 stitches
• count stitches--136. add one stitch.
• count stitches--136. add one stitch.
• count stitches--137.
• count stitches--137.
• start first row. come up one stitch short.
• rip out.

Casting on Take Two:

• Cast on, adding stitch markers to keep exact count.
• Knit one row.
• After examining knitting, understanding why Judy's Magic Caston is not a good replacement for the provisional caston and will not be okay.
• rip out.

Casting on Take Three:

• Cast on using a size 10 needle and replacing the waste yarn with a cable from my interchangable needle sets.
• use stitch markers to keep careful count.
• due to busy schedule, carry this around in my knitting bag a few days.
• knit the first row, carefully following pattern, at lunch time at work.
• after lunch, sit in a work session, fondling my knitting.
• discover that section one, which should be 8 stitches in length, is only 6 stitches.
• recount several times that afternoon.
• section one still continues to be 6 stitches.
• rip out.

Casting on Take Four:

• sit down with the family to knit and watch sitcoms
• cast on 20 stitches, using stitch markers to keep track
• notice I'm doing the figure 8 backwards
• rip out.

Casting on Take Five:

• cast on 40 stitches, using stitch markers to keep track
• notice I'm using a size 6 needle instead of the size 10 needle that's needed for caston
• rip out.

Casting on Take Six:

• cast on all stitches, using stitch markers to keep track
• knit first row
• knit second row
• notice that I didn't put the end cap on the interchangable needle cable, and the provisional stitches have fallen off the cable.
• rip out.

Casting on Take Seven

• cast on all 137 stitches, using stitch markers to keep track
• continue to knit.
• This time seems to be the right time!

Finished Firestarters!

Pattern: Firestarter (rav link) by Yarnissima
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in Deep Seaflower
Needles: Hiya Hiya 9" circular in size 2 and 3

They've been gifted and they fit. Hurrah!

Socks of the Deep Sea Flower

Finally! A chance to knit a project on a 9" circular needle. My hands get a little uncomfortable, but it's not a barrier to use, and the socks just sail along.

The pattern is Firestarter, just like the previous (still unfinished) socks. The yarn is my ever-favourite Dream in Color Smooshy, in the colourway Deep Sea Flower. I turned the heel last night and finished the heel flap today, so I'm making good progress.

 

ETA PS--Look! Squee! Johnny Jumpups! Did I plant those??

After the sock debacle

Well. After my olympic disaster, I did several things. None of them was to rip out the offending sock.

I did start casting on with wild abandon. I cast on the previously mentioned Noro mitten, but I determined I needed a size 1 needle for the cuff, and I was liking the 9" circular needle so much, I wanted to go buy a 9" size 1 needle just to continue.

I also cast on a pair of fingerless gloves for the teen in my life. He's been politely inquiring about their progress, so I thought I'd reward that interest. I'm using the same pattern as the ruby gloves I made earlier this month. The yarn is the ever-delicious Dream in Color Smooshy, in the colourway Black Parade. Maybe I'll finish tonight!

I also balled up some yarn to cast on a new Skew sock. My intention was to try Skew on a 9" circular needle, and for that, I made the journey to the far-away yarn store that sells them. Sadly, they were mostly sold out, and all I got was a bamboo size 2 in the 9" needle. The yarn I balled up required a size 1, so there are two projects that are waiting on a size 1.

By a stunning coincidence, there was a Harbor Freight in the same strip mall as the yarn store I drove 30 minutes to get to. I had never heard of that store until I was reading about calipers on Ravelry, and a knitter recommended one of theirs.

The calipers were on sale, and the moment I got to my car, I pulled them out and measured my 2 size 1 needles. It turns out that one of the needles was 2.25mm and the other was 2.5mm. This explains why my 2 socks were different sizes! When I put the socks back on the needles, I thought I was putting them on a size 1 needle, but I actually put them on a slightly larger 1.5 needle.

My KnitChek never distinguished between size 2.5 and 3 needles, and now I discover it never allowed me to realise that what I thought was 2 size 1 needles was actually a size 1 and a 1.5.  Now I have calipers and I will never use a KnitChek again! Information is power! Rar!

Ruby Gifts

I didn't intend it that way, but both projects from the Ruby Red Smooshy are gifts.

These gloves are from my own design, and intended for the friend who organises and hosts our Zen Knitting Circle. She coordinates handmade gifts to needy children and hospice patients, and inspires us all to use our knitting as a tool to bring more good things into the world.

Originally, the palm was going to be in stockinette, but ribbing turned out to be right for this pattern. I do love the different dye lots.

Fingerless gloves in progress

Wow. The first glove took me all week. I cast on for the second last night at a high school basketball game, and I'm already half-way through. I knitted for victory just as hard as I could knit, but it wasn't enough. These are made from the leftovers from the Ruby Clapotis, and as you can see, the dye lots vary significantly, which is why I knitted the clap with alternating strands. I like the colour differences, and I hope the gift recipient is cool with it too.

Off into the world: a finished object

 

Knit from Jan 4-13th
Needles: Size 6
Yarn: Ruby Red Dream in Color Smooshy
Pattern: Clapotis

 

I used 190 grams of yarn, about 1.7 skeins, for a finished dimensions of 14" x 85"

 

I blocked it over the weekend, and on Tuesday it went out in the mail. Delivery confirmation says it arrived in its destination community on Thursday, so I assume it's been received.

 

Dream in Color remains one of my favorite yarns. What a joy to knit, what a joy to wear.

Yet another knit-along

I get cold at work.

 

This has me thinking about scarves to wear. And my favourite scarves aren't exactly scarves, but shawls, worn as scarves.

 

And suddenly I realised that at work, I need a clapotis. I thought for 2 weeks about what yarn I wanted to use. When I stash yarn, I usually stash in sock-quantities, which aren't enough for a clapotis.

 

Then on Monday, I saw that the Loopy Ewe group on Ravelry is having a clapotis knit-along. I immediately joined. That evening, I heard that a friend had left town suddenly because a family member's health is in chaos. From this distance I can't help her, so I decided that my first clapotis would be for her. I had been hesitating about using my Ruby Red Smooshy for a clapotis, because I didn't think I'd wear it, but it's a perfect colour for her.

 

84 grams knit up, 160 left.

Finished Socks!

When the calendar told me it's December, I diverted myself back from the scarf to my dad's socks. I only had 20 rows left to knit, after all.


Yarn: Dream in Color Cocoa's Kiss Smooshy
Pattern: Gentleman's Fancy Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks
Needle: Size 2 Knit Picks circular
Modifications: Toe up, used a Bordhi-style heel, increases every other row, positioned to mimic a gusset-style heel.

I've woven in the ends, but I am still weaving in extra yarn into the heel and ball-of-foot area, to add extra thickness and hopefully extend their life. The Smooshy socks I made myself started falling apart after less than a year of wear. So I'm trying to make sure these don't dissolve too quickly.

But Smooshy remains my favourite yarn for its colours. Such a divine dye-job!

Acquisitions

Why, yes, I am still not stashing yarn frivolously, and all purchases are on a need-to-buy basis. The following yarn is all needed for gifts.


I have a coworker who recently knit the enticing Noro Scarf. I've been resisting the pull of this project for so long, but now that I've seen and witnessed it, I could no longer resist. The biggest deterrent was the cost. When I remembered I had $25 credit at the Loopy Ewe, that did me in. I bought Noro. The Noro is Silk Garden is colours 252 and 267. As always, the Loopy Ewe shipped it immediately by priority, and it arrived very quickly.

4 Monstrous Heels

I really am a fan of the Bordhi heel from New Pathways. I think it's an exercise in excess, but I love the construction. For my dad's socks, I decided to do the Bordhi heel but, like I've often done, only increase every other row. This meant I could use her charts, but needed to construct my own formulas for when to start the increases. I calculated very carefully, and came up with a good number. By Friday I was done with the increases and Saturday I started the heels. After doing the short row heel base, I measured the sock and it came up a quarter inch short of what I'd expected. I went ahead and turned the heel, but even after turning the heel it was still a quarter inch short (surprise surprise). I kept convincing myself this was okay for a number of reasons, like it's just the slipped stitches pulling it in, with a big foot there's more room for error, and such. Mostly I was loathe to rip back all those increases just to add three rows before they started. But I had already built in a half inch negative ease in the length, and this shortage meant that now there was three quarters of an inch of negative ease in the length, and I knew this could mean the sock would be too short and fit weird.

I pig-headedly proceeded, despite my doubts, until I was nearly finished with the second heel. At that point, I was sitting in a cold car parked downtown, enjoying the seat-heaters (my family calls them heat-seaters), listening to S&G, waiting for a carpool of ballerinas to finish rehearsal, and knitting on heels. I started texting Ember about my worries, and as usual, talking it over with some one else helped me figure it out for myself. I knew exactly what to do, and it didn't involve ripping out a third of each sock to redo the increases, although it did involve ripping out two heels.

By evening, I was feeling like I'd been knitting heels all day. Which was totally accurate. After ripping out the heels and getting all 216 stitches back on the needles, I added three rounds of plain knitting after the increases and before the heel stitches. Then I did the heel as before. At the end of one completed heel, I measured, and got exactly my target length. I finished the second heel around 11pm last night, snuggled up in bed, watching The Colbert Report through Hulu on my husband's laptop.

Thee heels are done! From here on out, it's all easy knitting. I just hope that my best efforts with measurements will result in a properly fitted sock. Please fit, sock!

An attitude adjustment

The neon socks I just finished knit up at an amazing speed. I couldn't stop knitting them. I was drunk on the speed. This was particularly emphasized by the fact that I only knit one at a time, since I wasn't sure about the design and only wanted to rip out one mistake. Knitting one sock at a time makes the sock feel like it's flying off the needles.

In contrast, I started a pair of socks yesterday for my dad. Going from socks for daughter to socks for my dad is a huge adjustment! I have to get used to the new adjusted pace of knitting these socks. Consider these numbers:

With the neon socks, I was knitting 44 stitches per row. This meant that every inch took 352 stitches.

With the new socks, at 72 stitches around, knitting both at once, I'm knitting 144 stitches per row. And with the smaller gauge, there are more rows per inch, so every inch takes 1584 stitches.

Unsurprisingly, these new socks seem to be creeping along. But that's okay. I like the knitting, I like the yarn, and I like the pattern. I may not be flying through the socks, but the steady progress keeps me happy.

 

Finished Object: Stardust Kai-mei

One Skein of Smooshy, All Gone

Last fall, while working on Jeanie, I had a moment of panic. I thought I might run out of yarn. I immediately ordered a spare skein of Smooshy. I knew that it might not match the ones I already had, but I figured it was a win-win-situation. If it matched, yay! it matched. If it didn't match, yay! I had a new skein of Smooshy for another project. It didn't match.



Last November, I grabbed that skein for a pair of Conwy socks from Knitting on the Road. I worked on it diligently while on the road, and then when I got home, I had them in my "on the go" knitting bag, and worked on them when I had time. I just finished them last weekend. Yay, another pair of Conwy!



The socks each weighed 41 grams. The remaining ball weighed 38 grams. I decided to make some fingerless gloves. Despite my previous troubles with a top-down mitten, these just had to be top-down, because I had no clue how long to make them with just this amount of yarn. I planned carefully, and for once my forethought paid off, and my ideas actually translated well into a finished project.



I knitted the thumbs singularly first, and then the bodies 2 at a time. I added the thumbs to the body, knitting them together, and then decreased down, making a "sore-thumb" style thumb. On Saturday I had to work, which really interfered with my knitting time, but today I spent lots of time working on it, very curious to see just how much I'd get out of this ball of yarn. The finished project isn't as long as I'd hoped, but adequate. And other than length, I love these gloves. But then, I love Smooshy. Have I mentioned it's my favourite yarn?