Pomatoes--The Finished Objects

Pattern: Pomatomus
Started: Feb 15, 2008
Completed: March 16, 2008
Yarn: Miranda, of Sweet Sheep Faerie Feet
Needle: Knit Picks size 2 circular

Acquisitions

Woohoo! I am now the proud owner of a digital scale! The application possibilities for this item are endless. First of all, we can determine that one Hiiumaa sock weighs 38 grams, and the remaining yarn weighs 43 grams. So I know now I can safely make one more Hiiumaa.



We could also determine that one Frogtastic Surf Sock weighs 34 grams, while each remaining ball weighs 55 grams. Therefore, quite a tall sock can be made with the remaining yarn! Also, clearly, I only needed one ball for a pair.



Most fascinating to me has been the ways my #1Grrl finds to use it. For example, she decided to determine the mass of marker ink, although she didn't quite articulate it that way. So she weighed a wooden craft stick (aka non-sterile tongue depressor) and then coloured the heck outta that stick and weighed it again. To her delight, the weight had increased by one gram!



Then we weighed a roll of quarters. One roll is 40 quarters and a value of $10. The roll weighed 228 grams. A single quarter weighed 6 grams. Using our math, we determined that based on weight, the roll probably held 38 quarters, or $9.50. Then we counted the quarters, and discovered that it did indeed hold the proper quantity of 40. This spawned plenty more measuring and the conclusion that... We need a more accurate scale. We've not even had it a day and it's already obsolete!

Acquisitions

If it followed me home, could I keep it?
Araucania sock yarn, hand dyed in Chile. Completely irresistible.

Slow & Steady

Not always a lot to blog about, I just keep on knitting. Jeanie's at about 10 inches now. The goal is 70 inches. I try to work on her every day, at least a few rows. That fell through yesterday. Pomato is getting so close to the toe that I just couldn't stop working on that. Best I can tell, one more chart repeat and I'll be onto toe decreases. Have I mentioned what a tactile delight the pomato is?

Mindless knitting report

As I mentioned in my previous post, I needed some mindless knitting for Saturday night. I needed something so mindless I could knit it in the dark. Finally, Saturday afternoon, I was able to put aside the pomatoes and attend to this issue. I needed a yarn not likely to get uppity on me, so I picked one of the balls of Limbo I got on discount not long ago. As I only had one ball of the yarn, I decided they would be socks for my #1grrl, who doesn't have any MamaMadeSocks at the moment. The plan was: toe up socks, short row heel, and the same easy rib from Sensational Knitted Socks.

I did indeed knit on the socks that evening. I had hours in a theatre, and when it was dark, I knitted fervently on the new socks. Admittedly, when it was light, I knitted on the pomatoes.

Come Sunday morning, I measured the new socks--they were 4 inches long. I browsed through New Pathways and for some reason, decided these socks should actually be the Dove Socks in that book. This was courting danger, for not only do those Bordhi increases suck up lots of yarn, but the Dove pattern was committing me to a predetermined height for the legs. I had to be sure I had enough yarn to reach the top of the big diamond. And indeed, as I worked on the increases, I could see the ball of yarn steadily decreasing. That's when I decided I needed to use an alternate yarn for the heels. My daughter was free to pick out her preferred heels.



The yarn did indeed make it to the top of the diamond. I even got four rows of ribbing above it! I knitted until I completely ran out of yarn, as shown in the photo above. Then my daughter changed her mind about having a bindoff that matched the heels, and I had to pick back a row and a half in order to have enough yarn to bind off.


Finished Object!
Started: Feb 16, 2008 (3pm!)
Finished: Feb 18, 2008 (11am!)
Yarn: Limbo
Needle: Size 5 Knitpicks Options circular
Pattern: Dove Socks from New Pathways. Toe up.



I love the incongruous heels. The little touch of whimsy* completely delights me. Oh, the joys of homemade!



*about whimsy... Imogen in The Blue Girl had a very specific definition of whimsy. I'm not sure if dayglo heels conforms to her definition. But I still think of those heels as a touch of whimsy.

Bossy little faerie

Things aren't going quite as planned. First, let me make it clear... my enthusiasm for Jeanie has not waned even a bit. The thing is, I need some mindless knitting for tonight. Planning ahead, I picked out a yarn yesterday morning. I wound Miranda, my Sweet Sheep Faerie Feet, into a ball, and purused Sensational Knitted Socks for a nice little easy rib pattern I could do with my eyes shut.

That's where the trouble began. Miranda made it very clear that she was not interested in some nice and easy little rib pattern that I could do with my eyes shut. No, ma'am. Turns out, Miranda wanted to be Pomatomus.


As you can see, Miranda was completely right. Not that I ever doubted her, of course, it's just lovely to see the proof. So now I have two beloved but complicated projects in the works... and no mindless knitting yet for tonight. Sigh.

pansy progress

Jeanie is making steady progress. Although it doesn't show in the picture, I have started dropping stitches. This development is both thrilling and alarming. When the shawl gets a little longer, I'll have a better view of the overall picture.

just in time

Just in time for a new weekend, here is the weekend report from LAST weekend. Things like dead camera batteries, strange computer alerts, and a captivating new project kept this update from happening earlier.

I went on a finishing binge this weekend, which was well-timed. First, I finished the little brave babe that has been languishing on my bedside table. She still needs a complete wardrobe, but hey! she's got hair!



I have a pair of BBS (Big Black Socks) for Socks for Soldiers that has been making turtle progress (slow and steady). This weekend they got that final push and were done.



Also finished this weekend was a set of fingerless gloves for the older kidlet. They still need some decorative efforts, but would you believe I've lost that ball of yarn? Hopefully I'll find it this next weekend.

wise men say only fools rush in

On Thursday, Ember showed me Jeanie. What happened next is a bit of a blur. Fastforward to today... 3 skeins of Dream in Colour Smooshy--Pansy Golightly--arrived from the Loopy Ewe. My planned weekend update will have to come later. No time to blog further. Must... go... cast... on...

Saggy, baggy heels

The Rivulet Socks had a very busy day yesterday. After their involvement with making muffins, they rushed off to drop off at a Boy Scouts' bake sale. They tried to go to Sunday Services, but instead wound up at the children's class. There was much 80s joy at the children's class, and the socks danced about on hard wood floors til they were weary. Then there was some Rock Lobster , and the socks danced about some more. While all the adults there, with their socks, were flopping about on the ground, "Down, down, down!" the children seemed highly alarmed. Seriously, I don't know what to think of a generation that is unmoved by Rock Lobster !

The socks went on for a busy day running errands, going out for tea, and a joyful trip to the snowy, sunny park to enjoy near-springlike weather.

I love the socks. They look fabulous. The yarn is stunning. Sadly, the heels are abominable. I will still wear them, but any further attempts at socks from New Pathways will need some serious tweaking to fit properly.

if it ain't broke...

I am making steady progress on my Rushing Rivulet socks. I will be starting the cuff after just a few more inches. I'm still pondering the picot hem as recommended in the pattern.
Naturally, I haven't worn these socks yet, though I have tried them on. They seem like they will fit, but the real proof will come in the wearing. At this point in time, I'm not completely sold on the Bordhi architectures for my socks. It worked really well for my son's socks, however I'm not convinced I need this custom shaping. These socks include increases through two-thirds of the foot! First of all, it uses a whole lotta yarn. Secondly, do I really need those generous increases? My actual foot is still getting smaller while the sock is getting larger. It makes one seriously chunky heel! I have been comparing these socks to my other socks. In the photograph below, you can see a pair of socks with a short-row heel layered atop a pair of socks with a "traditional" heel, on top of the Bordhi socks. Do I really need that much heel? My socks made with much smaller heel acreage all fit me quite nicely.

As I said above, the proof will be in the wearing, so all this pondering is purely academic at this point. In the meantime, I continue to wonder... if it ain't broke, why are we fixing it?

Rushing along with Rivulets

It just so happens that I have a lot of things I need/want to knit. Things for my kids, gifts, stuff I fancy, stuff I imagine, a couple unfinished objects, etc. I'm longing to knit up my Sweet Sheep yarn and the Lark yarn; it's just sitting by my bed tormenting me, all of it. So I don't have a good explanation why I started on these Rushing Rivulet socks. They are pictured in the New Pathways for Sock Knitters, with a chart, but knitters have to utilize the Riverbed Architecture and figure it out for themselves. The Riverbed Architecture is supposed to be nice because you can fill the socks with a pattern, right to the sides of the heels. I have never before in my sock-knitting days longed to fill the sides of the heels with pattern. So naturally I tried it. Ever since seeing the pic of the Rivulet socks, the pattern has been telling me it would be perfect with my Rio del Plata yarn. And admittedly, this sock yarn has been waiting a lot longer than the Sweet Sheep yarn.

In this pic above, you can hopefully see the V-shape that creates the increases on the sole. It also shows my markers. The book recommends letter markers. On these socks I'm using embroidery floss tied into loops. I don't need letters on my markers to keep track, and most of my markers were too chunky to work nicely with such thin yarn. But my skull markers were just perfect for keeping track of the 3 row repeats.


This second picture above shows the rivulet pattern, a basic pattern of k2tog followed by a yo.


I turned one heel today. I had high expectations of turning two, but I did a lot of Homework Mom duties, which involved many interruptions. One of the tricks I had with this sock was deciding how to carry the rivulet pattern down the sides of the socks as the increases in the sole moved stitches from the sole to the sides. I wound up tracking the increase rows in groups of four. On the third of four increase rows, I would add the rivulet pattern on only one side, on the side where the k2tog occurred within 2 stitches of the existing pattern. On the fourth increase row, I finished adding the four-stitch rivulet pattern on both sides of the sock. This is because every four increase rows meant eight stitches added to the centre of the sole, which meant I could add two four-stitch repeats on the sides. Clear as mud?


What a funky shaped sock this is!

Dashing Done!

I actually finished these last weekend, but didn't get a picture until today. I'm kinda disappointed in the finished product. They're absurdly long, both over the fingers and up the arm. They seem more like outdoor-useful than work-useful. I'm pondering making a pair of fetching for my friend, instead. On the other hand, both my children adore these and each want their own.
Pattern: Dashing
Needle: Size 8 circular
Yarn: Cascade 220 Quatro
Notes: As I mentioned in previous posts, knitting at gauge made these too tight. I had to go up a needle size and make the larger size.
Started and Finished in January, 2008.

refrogged

I'm not having much success with the Dashing pattern. This is my second attempt that has been too small. Being as it's a pattern for a man, I made the mistaken assumption that a size small would fit a woman. Knitting it at gauge was uncomfortably tight, and then going up a needle size was also uncomfortably tight. I have frogged and started over using the large. All it really adds is four purl stitches, so I'm hoping that's enough to allow these to fit comfortably. As these are for a friend who's far away, I can't try them on her and see if they'd fit. My coworker tried them on and she says they fit fine. However, I'm going with the theory that if they're tight on me, it's possible they'd be tight on the recipient, and I want these to be useful.

ahoy!

The pirate feet are complete!
It's already a blur, I can't recap all the modifications. I used the ridgeline architecture from New Pathways for Sock Knitters, with a little cable twisting up the centre panel. The charts were modified to fit my stitch count. The heel was adjusted to fit my son.

He loves hand-knit socks almost as much as I do, and because of his unique feet coupled with the facts that A) he outgrows socks at an amazing speed and B) unless I make reinforced toes and heels, he wears out the socks before he can even outgrow them, he hasn't had a pair of mama-made socks that fit for a year now. It's about time!

Live from the sledding hill

Pirate mittens, action shot.

alas!

Would you believe I ran out of yarn? When my #1Son requested pirate socks to match the mittens, I said, "I have just the yarn!" and pulled out my shepherd sock yarn bought on clearance last June. I had 2 balls of black and one of white. My decision on how to make the sock was based on the amount of yarn I had. Clearly I couldn't make the socks completely out of colour work, because I didn't have enough white. I didn't expect to run out of black. Obviously I have a very skewed sense of yarn requirements because I ran out (toe up) just before the colourwork cuff began. This precipitated an emergency run to the yarn store. "Hi, I know you sold this yarn off on clearance six months ago, but do you have anything to substitute?" The substitute looked good, but really, it was thicker. I didn't have much choice so I plugged on with the thicker black. I carried white ahead to compensate for the fact that it was a slightly thinner yarn.

Notes to self: I knit the leg in 3x1 ribbing until the point where his leg started to widen up again. I knit in stockinette stitch once around, and then started with the white stripe. When I got to the first 2-colour row, I switched to a size 6 needle, which persisted through the rest of the sock. When I started the pirate row, I added 2 stitches at the back of the sock to go to 54 stitches, allowing me to add 2 stitches to each repeat of the 16-stitch-repeat pattern. When I got to the row of white fleur-de-lis, I increased again by 2 stitches, getting the total back to a multiple of four. After the final white row, I knit one row in black, purled one row in black, and then cast off with a double strand of black.

Sock 2 needs its colourwork, and then I'll be done.

A little springtime

Thanks to springer.com, we have a little burst of colour in our office. This promotional gift arrived a few months ago and has been my job to tend. Johnny jump-ups are great in salads, but these are just for visual enjoyment

salt and pepper heel

Quick progress update... with notes that are probably meaningful only to me. I've completed the heels on both pirate socks. I'm not as wowed by the results as I'd planned to be, but I've come to accept them. At the top of the heels, the socks still fit the recipient, another fitting will be needed tonight.

To accommodate his slender foot and broad heel, I cast on and knitted up according to the midfoot measurement, 23 stitches per needle, 46 total. I started the increases early, which allowed me to increase to 74 stitches total, instead of the recommended 68. Before starting the heel, I adjusted the heel needle to 27 stitches, and then worked the heel for a target of 54 stitches around the ankle, 27 per needle. At that point, it still fit. Then I decided that to accommodate the ribbing pattern I want, I would change it to 52 stitches, so I did one more decrease in line with the heel decreases, and have knit about another inch. Tonight's fitting will determine if I can get away with 52. If so, I will continue with the 3x1 ribbing until it seems appropriate to start the colourwork again.

before and after

I have had snow bonnets on my mind, of late. I saw a college girl wearing a vintage styled snow bonnet, the big fluffy white kind with big pompoms on the tassels. Woosh! A flood of memories came with the sight of that snow bonnet! When I saw the snow bonnet in the Golden Compass, it was the perfect opportunity to create a snow bonnet that satisfied my interest in this vintage style and was something that my daughter would get excited about.
Yesterday, my coworker and I made a lunch-time trip to a nearby yarn store. I was seeking out a good worsted yarn in tan or fawn to combine with the Cascade 220 and Naturespun I already have to make the perfect colour combination. It is turning out more elusive than I expected. I spotted some Lang Naima in a satisfactory colour, 30% off. It's an alpaca/merino blend, making it deliciously soft. I held the two strands together, and swatched with the largest needles I have, a mere size 17. The pattern is written for 6 stitches to 4 inches, but unfortunately, with such tiny needles, I could only get 9 stitches to 4 inches, so I had to recalculate. I started with 45 stitches, and knit the entire yarn up, concluding that the product was too wide and not deep enough. I ripped it out and started over with 40 stitches but by that time, my arms were all sore from wrestling with these broomsticks needles and gave it a rest. Today, at work on break and again at home, I finished up. It took all the yarn I had to make the hat deep enough, and I used the tails left to make a narrow braid for tassels. I almost went out to buy another ball, just for tassels, but we're trying it as is, for now. I only had 15 inches of yarn left!

(she's also wearing a homemade dress in that photo)

Acquisitions

I made a quick trip to the yarn store, in need of one particular ball of yarn. I wanted something in the weight of Cascade 220 or Naturespun in a tan or fawn, and would you believe they didn't have anything at all close to the colour I needed? However, I made a haul in the bargain bin, 3 colours of limbo at 45% off, plus a Sarasuperwash similarly discounted. And I tossed in some baby twist for more mitten action.

Icelandic Wool!

Lookee! I won!
Priscilla ran a blog contest. And while I didn't guess accurately the number of charity items she would make in December, I had the luck of being her random winner. She sent me this delicious skein of Icelandic Wool she picked up at a fiber fest. Oh goodness, the colours are so ME! The yarn is gorgeous, but now I'm fretting. What, oh what, should I knit with this colourful delight? Thanks Priscilla!!

Me and my frogs

My goodness it was a frogolicious weekend. I started out with a pair of Dashing from Cascade Quatro. Let me tell you, I swatched very patiently, and finally concluded that I got gauge with the recommended needles, size 7. This is an odd occurrence, I usually need to knit at least one needle size larger. I selected the smaller pattern size, assuming that as the pattern is designed for a man, the large would be man's size, and the small would be woman's size. I knit quite a ways on the pair, making it past the second cable, but I finally had to admit that they were uncomfortably tight. Ribbit.

The picture shows the next effort, started today on size 8 needles. I so far think these will fit fine, but I will know for sure after some cabling happens.



On Sunday, discouraged from my Dashing failure, I worked on the pirate socks I've been struggling with. These are for my son, who has difficult-to-fit feet. I know this from several sock failures. I measured carefully, and compared to Cat Bordhi's sock size tables in New Pathways. Turns out that his heel size is appropriate for his foot length, but his foot width and ankle width are slim. So socks designed to fit his ankle and foot width come up too small around the heel. I started using the recommended numbers for his midfoot, hoping that if I made nice and stretchy ribbing, it would fit. I knit 10 rows of 1x1 ribbing, and then had him try it on. It went over his heel, but just barely, and obviously no colourwork would fit. Ribbit.

After a great deal of thought, I decided to try a toe-up variation, allowing me to make sure the foot fits, and then play with the leg size. I followed her directions for what she calls the "standard toe". She uses this toe with the 2-colour socks in her book. The formula called for starting with 7 stitches per needle. However, after knitting 3 inches, I tried it on him, and discovered that the toe was way too pointed, and not flexible enough at all. He would have a sticky-outy-flap of toe scrunched up in the end of his shoe. Not good at all. Ribbit.



Next up, I started with 13 stitches per needle. I was so happy with the first toe that I started a second one. When they match, I'll knit both socks together. Although in the picture, the smaller toe is incorrect and it has now been picked back a row.

Swatch, Bordhi Style

 
This picture shows a swatch done as recommended by Cat Bordhi in New Pathways. She suggests casting on the stitches on two needles using Judy's Magic Caston and knit from there, making a little pouch. If you need to change needle sizes, you knit a purl row and then keep knitting on the new needles. For reasons I can't properly articulate, this caston works best for me. Casting on a circular tube or doing that trick where you leave a huge strand in back so it's like you're knitting in the round but you only knit one direction, both those swatches leave me terribly impatient before I have satisfactory results. Somehow knitting a little pouch allows me to measure the gauge before I get too impatient to continue.

I would also like to point out the needles in the photo. That circular needle is built from my brand new Knit Picks Options needle set. Woohoo! So far I'm very pleased with the needle set. The cables are great, just like the fixed circulars I have from knitpicks, and the joins are perfectly smooth. The needle shown is actually assembled with one size 6 point and one size 7 point. I was at first concerned that one set of each size might not be enough, and soon devised a method to have two needles of the same size. I put the required size point on the active needle, and a smaller point on the passive needle, and it works just fine. In the case of this photo, I'd been too lazy to change both tips when I moved up a size.

New Year's Eve Knitting

 

I'm close to completing mitten #2. However, notice in the picture, the two mitten tips? They don't quite match, do they? When reading the pattern, I read to knit until 14 stitches remained. I interpreted this as 14 stitches per needle, although that seemed like too many stitches per needle. I actually closed it at 11 stitches per needle, but it didn't close very nicely. Later I realized I was supposed to close it at 14 stitches total. Oops! In my defense, I looked at other patterns, and they instruct until 7 stitches remain per needle. So it is confusing, I say! After closing mitten #2, I redid mitten #1 to close the same way.

Oh yeah. Happy new year! Happy 2008!