Broadripple Stripeages

It's no secret that I'm awfully fond of striping yarn, and my knitting buddies all know I'm terribly fussy about my multicolour yarns. I love stripes, but totally dislike spotty bits and jacquard, which eliminates a large percentage of the striped yarns commercially available. For example, I wanted to love the Harry Potter yarn, but it just represented everything I dislike in striping yarns.

When I knit with striped yarns, I'm always torn between just doing plain knitting, and enjoying the stripes, or doing a fancy stitch that highlights and harmonizes with the stripes. Sometimes I do chevrons. Sometimes I just let the stripes shine.

I've been wanting to explore my sKnitches Carnival yarn that's been lurking in my stash. And I recently saw a pattern for a broadripple sock that really plays well for stripes. Time to bring the two together!



I started this pair last night. I was immediately concerned that the garter ridge band wouldn't look nice with the changing colours. I pondered my alternatives. I could knit the cuff in a contrasting colour, but this would require more yarn. I couldn't think of any stash sock yarn that would contrast well, and I wasn't thrilled about the idea of buying another ball of yarn, just for contrast. So I knitted on. Then this morning, when I was finishing the cuff, I decided I totally didn't like the way the colour changes looked in garter stitch. I also remembered I had some Knit Picks' essentials in some similar colours. So I ripped out the cuffs and started over.



Broadripple socks, version two, are coming along nicely. They're a handsome pair of socks, I do declare! I even swatched before beginning and got gauge. Unfortunately, the socks are too tight. I've decided to proceed, and make them for my daughter. They fit her just perfectly, and they'll be very cute on her.

Red Fetching, finished

In my previous post about the fetching, Priscilla asked about the bindoff. (and thank you, I adore the colour, too.) This is a very appropriate question, as the original pattern calls for a picot bindoff, but few knitters seem to like that bindoff. In my previous attempt, I used a normal bindoff, and was rather unhappy with the final results.

So I did several modifications to the pattern, many similar to the ones described by Ina on Ravelry. To do the bindoff, I added a cable repeat, like she did, extending the length of the fetching a little. I then did one decrease in the middle of each group of four. You do a k2tog for the glove with the right-leaning cables, and a ssk for the left-leaning cables. Then I did an Elizabeth Zimmerman sewn bindoff. The results are much neater than my previous pair. Unfortunately, the upper edge still curls a little, but not much when you're wearing them.

Pattern: fetching
Yarn: Peruvian yarn, an unspecified blend of wool, alpaca, and cotton
Needle: Size 6
Notes: Let me spell it out for myself...

I cast on, knit 3 rows in 4x1. Pattern says 4, this was a mistake, but I let it rest.

Did four cable repeats

Knit 26 rows of 4x1 rib.

On row 11, 13, 15, an 17, I increased twice in the first column of knit stitches. (Right leaning on right edge, left leaning on left edge.) This made a thumb gusset of 12 stitches.

After 26 rows, I moved the 12 stitches of the thumb gusset onto a separate needle.

Using 2 more size six needles and another ball of yarn, I cast on 4 stitches using a figure 8 cast on. Using the original ball, I knitted across the four stitches and on through the row. Using the new ball, I continued from the 4 stitches and knit around the thumb. I knit around about 5 times and cast off using the EZ cast off.

I knit four more rows, then 2 cable rows. Then I knitted 3 more rows. On the fourth, I decreased once in each group, then did an EZ sewn bindoff

Edging Jeanie

So I'm home from work with a sick little girl again. The silver lining might be time to knit on Jeanie, except I feel wicked saying that, because really, I just would rather her be better. We curled up on the couch together, listening to Bridge Over Troubled Water (She digs Cecilia) and Flyer
(she digs Time of Inconvenience) and knit for a while--she put down her knitting a lot sooner than I did. Knitting's a good distraction, though not a cure, for those maternal worries like "Why is she running a fever again?" and "Should I send her to that mandatory rehearsal?".



I've been edging Jeanie. This involves knitting a cable band parallel to the edge and joining it with the live stitches. I tried to take a photo to illustrate the insanity that is knitting with four different needles--holding needle for resting live stitches, 2 LIME GREEN double points for the active stitches, plus a cable needle for all that mad cabling--but the pictures are far more illegible than the reality.

All that's left now is to graft the final 8 stitches, weave in ends, make sure all the stitches are dropped, and blocking. Unfortunately, grafting didn't look so good with the lower edging, and I'm hesitant to proceed. I'm sure I will, though!

A gift in progress

This is the type of thing that's been seducing me away from Jeanie. Quicker, manageable, attainable projects. I'm trying to have a gift to mail off in the next few days. I have completed one fetching, with a few modifications, including a thumb gusset. It's made of the soft and fuzzy yarn my #1Man brought me back from the market in Lima, Peru.

PS I just put the first fetching on the scale, and it weighed 23 grams. I put the remaining yarn from that ball on the scale, and it weighed 23 grams. I did knit the few rounds of the thumb from another ball, so in theory, I should be able to make it through this without running outta yarn. I hope!

Ballet skirt!

I like to blog my sewing projects, too. My little ballerina needed a full skirt for rehearsals, as she will be wearing the costume of a 19th century german girl. And naturally, they don't rehearse in costume. I admit that while I actually first thought, "I can make that!" I did make a breeze through several kids' stores, and didn't see a single full skirt. Guess it's not the style of the season. So we were searching through the fabrics, and she couldn't decide, and I just said, "Here, let's use of the last of the ballet pink and make you a ballet skirt." She agreed, and the skirt is perfect for her needs. I think next time I'll make the elastic a little tighter, it sags a bit.

 

Acquisitions

Jeanie is all but finished. Only 13 rows of knitting remain, plus the edging, finishing, and blocking. I keep distracting myself with smaller, more attainable projects. More on those, later.

I knew I wanted to have proper blocking wires for Jeanie. There are blocking wires at knitpicks.com, but frankly, I've already spent a lot of money on Jeanie, and spending another $30 for blocking wires (plus shipping, or purchasing more for free shipping) just wasn't sitting right.

I searched ravelry for more information about using welding rods, and found the exact info I needed, so I could walk into a welding supply store and tell them just what I wanted. I was just working up my courage to actually go to the welding store. I was thinking I'd spend about $10.

I saw on ravelry that Joann.com had blocking wires for $17. I went to look, but spending $6.99 made it so that I wasn't saving much money, anyway. I returned to the welding store plan.

A couple hours later, I got an email from Joann.com that offered free shipping on a $25 purchase. Good timing on their part! I searched the site, thinking carefully of what exactly I wanted to buy at JoAnn's anyway. I finally recalled my elastic needs. I tossed some elastic thread and some lingerie elastic into my cart, getting the total to about $25.04, I think, and ordered. My wires and elastic arrived yesterday. So I guess I'd better finish up Jeanie!

 

No longer nekkid!

This poor babe has been waiting an awful long time for clothes. She was crafted back in the days of Graduate School, and has endured that, plus my months of recovery, waiting for a wardrobe of her own. It's a modest start, but at least she has something to call her own! If I could ever stop driving long enough, or stop knitting Jeanie, or stop sneaking in baby socks for babies that are arriving soon, I'd make her a whole buncha stuff!

Good news, bad news

Good news! Two socks, all finished (almost!), all identical (almost!), all matching

Bad news! So, uhm, these socks aren't supposed to be identical. They are supposed to match, but they are supposed to be mirror images.

Good news! Two friends are expecting babies. I'll just make two more mirror image socks to complement these.

Bad news! I'm really bad at making a second pair. Also? I'm supposed to be working on Jeanie. Oh yeah, Jeanie. Off to knit...

Infidelity. I has it.

It started so innocently. Browsing through the pictures on Ravelry of people's versions of Cat Bordhi's baby socks. And then, browsing through New Pathways itself, looking at the baby socks. Then it snowballed to stash diving, seeking out some colourful worsted weight yarn. And then--oh my--then I found the perfect yarn. I was frantically swatching, and my husband was standing in the bedroom door going, "Don't you have to leave NOW?"

When I returned from driving the ballet carpool, I didn't even hang up my keys or my coat before I was knitting. I didn't like how the toe looked in the variegated yarn; the increases made it look sloppy. So I ripped out the toe and redid it in a solid colour. And while the family slowly went to bed, I was still sitting there, knitting on a baby sock. About 11:30 at night I came up for air, because the sock was ready to cast off. Tonight, same yarn, same place?

Jeanie note: Yes, I did stray from Jeanie. But I did manage to do my obligatory 2 repeats on her beforehand. She measures in at 61", 5" shy of finishing. As she gets closer to being done, my roving eye gets oh-so-worse.

Jeanie Report, no pictures

Okay, tonight Jeanie measures 59"! I'm well on track to making it to 66" (or more) by this weekend, and then I can edge her, finish her, and block her. I have managed to adhere to, and sometimes exceed, my knitting goal all week. Except Friday. So on Friday, I was glancing at the books on our delete/discard shelf. I picked up this Jodi Picoult book that I totally didn't want to read. Unimaginable violence in teens tearing apart happy families. Yeah, don't wanna go there. So then of course I started reading it, except that I was at work and I couldn't read it. Instead of knitting, I read all through lunch hour, and then again that evening. I had imagined a cozy evening of reading and knitting, both, but then one thing after the other had me in and out of the car all night, and just a few stolen moments of reading until late evening. Fortunately I finished it, and enjoyed it, even, so I could get back to knitting the rest of the weekend. When Busy Mama had a few moments to herself, anyway.

Jeanie math

• According to last night's measurements, I need to add 17 inches to Jeanie.


• Every six rows, I do a cable row. I consider each cable row the end of a repeat, even though the pattern is really larger than six rows. My recent goal has been to complete two repeats a day. This isn't always possible, but it's helped me to make steady progress.


• I had guessed that one repeat measured approximately one inch. Today I tested that with a ruler. I found that 4 repeats measures 3.5 inches.


• (17 inches)*(4 repeats/3.5 inches)=19.428 repeats


• since I would definitely finish a repeat, I round that up to 20 repeats remaining


• At two repeats per day, I would finish in 10 days, or the 17th of October


• after finishing the repeats, I will need to do the top edging, weave in the ends, and block


• This means that I'm barely on schedule for finishing in time


• So I have to adhere to the 2 repeat/day rule, and preferably make that 3/day.


• One repeat takes about an hour


• So I need to commit 3 hours a day to Jeanie. On top of working extra hours, driving carpools, feeding a family, helping with homework, etc. Oh yeah, and sleeping.


• Oh man...


• (Yes, my brain loves that kind of number fun)

And a sock post

So I'm finishing up a pair of socks that never made it to the blog. These were my more portable project, something to knit on when knitting Jeanie was inappropriate or implausible. I've actually expanded my definition of when knitting Jeanie is appropriate. For a while, I considered her too bulky/finicky to take to work, but I've decided to just deal with the problems, since I can make serious progress by using an entire hour every day at lunch.



But back to the socks. I had intended these to be my July socks for the Sock-A-Month club. Yes, I did. I even thought I could make it, for I was making steady progress up the leg as July was waning. Yeah, well, I didn't. And then I didn't make it for August or September, either! At the end of September, I was only 3 rows from casting off. Now I've cast off one sock, and woven in its ends, too. It won't take me long to finish the second sock, but I'm just not willing to take much time away from Jeanie. I will, however, finish this pair in October.



My participation in the Sock-A-Month club this time round has been pathetic. What a bummer. I hope that I can finish off Jeanie and get back into the groove. I even have baby socks to make, so that might help me succeed in the sock department in the months to come.

Breaking the Silence

So, yeah, I didn't blog in a very long time. The quietude of the blog is a pulsating symptom of the unquietude of my life. Not much knitting time at all, and the very lack of time meant that any free knitting time was spent actually knitting, rather than blogging. And then I found that the longer I hadn't posted, the harder it was to break the silence and start posting again. So this weekend heralds the Return of Blogging. So it seems.



First off, I'm posting a better picture of the new yarn that arrived this weekend from the Loopy Ewe. I have been making progress on my Jeanie, and I was starting to panic that the wrap wouldn't be long enough. I decided to order another skein. Now, I ordered it knowing full well that it wouldn't likely be the same dye lot and could easily not match. I ordered it fully accepting this possibility. And when the yarn arrived, even though I didn't have the wrap nearby to check, I immediately knew that the yarn wouldn't match at all. It doesn't even look like the same colourway. Oh well. Now I will be forced to knit something else with this divinely soft and lofty merino. Woe is me.



I also have decided to use smooshy to make a pair of knee-highs. I didn't think one skein would be enough for knee-highs, so I ordered another skein of Ruby Red. Again, I knew the colourways might not be compatible, but in this case, I had no attachment to them matching. The new skein is, indeed, a little lighter, with more colour variation. I'm okay with this. I'm confident they'll be fantastic as socks, even if it's obvious they aren't identical.



I've been knitting diligently on Jeanie. At the moment, this is my primary project. I am yearning to cast on the abovementioned ruby red knee-highs, but I will not. I have a deadline on Jeanie, and I really have to finish her up. She's at 49 inches right now. The pattern says to knit to 66 inches before starting the edging. While the progress I've been making has seemed minuscule, I can finally say I'm approaching the end.



This weekend I worked on the lower edging. This lower edge has been parked on a knitpicks cable from my interchangeable needles kit. I had a very difficult time getting the edging right, because the stitches didn't quite line up with the stitch columns. Have you ever noticed that? I've noticed it in situations where I'm working on mittens, and have taken out the waste yarn holding the place for the thumb. The upper edge, especially if the mitten is in pattern, is awkwardly not aligned with the stitches. This was the problem I had with the lower edging. For a column of 8 stitches, I had 7 live stitches to edge. Awkward, yes? I finally just ploughed forward. I don't know if the edge is adequately pretty. I hope so. I also hope blocking makes Jeanie blocky.

Acquisitions!

Fresh from the Loopy Ewe, 2 new duplicate colours. I was hoping the Pansy yarn would be a good match for Jeanie, but no luck. The ruby is also a duplicate because i want knee socks. Wow did they arrive fast!

Singular Sock Wrap-up

In a previous post, I weighed my pine and pumpkin sock yarn and determined I had enough left to make one more sock. In a previouser post, I had examined the finished socks and pondered what project could use up the yarn. In the spirit of serious stash-busting, I went ahead and made another Hiiumaa sock, to match the others and use up what was left. I started it last April on a trip to Seattle, using my nice Comfort Zone needles on the plane. (These needles are in my comfort zone because I'm terrified of having my needles confiscated. I figure the Comfort Zone needles not only aren't metal, but can hardly be threatening in any interpretation.) Unfortunately, the sad truth is, while I admire double points, finding them aesthetically pleasing, and they appeal strongly to my vintage sensibilities, I just don't like knitting with them at all. Thus, the entire sock has been a pain in the bum to knit.

Two nights ago I was finally about to start the toe decreases, and the menfolk came into the room to chat. I showed them the sock, along with how much green yarn was remaining.

#1Man, with a sigh: Does this mean you need to buy more yarn?
Me: No, it just means the sock will have an orange toe.
#1Son: That's what I love about homemade socks. You work with what you've got, and they always turn out cooler than any other socks.

Yes, the #1Son does deserve many, many pairs of socks.



So I began knitting the decreases, and immediately discovered a grievous error. While 3 needles had 18 stitches, as they should, 1 needle had 21 stitches. Very, very wrong. The error originated from some anomaly in the gusset decreases, this I am sure. I cannot offer a satisfactory explanation. I can only say that I completed the gusset decreases during a lunch hour at work, sitting outside in the shade during a hot desert noon, listening to Orson Scott Card's Shadow Puppets on my mp3 player. Apparently I was distracted enough not to count thoroughly and notice that while the first decrease needle was at the right spot, the second one most certainly was not.

Then I began to agonize. Clearly, the extra three stitches over the course of the sock were responsible for me running out of yarn. I had a choice: rip back to the decreases, fix, and reknit the foot, or just proceed. I articulated the question:

If I knit forward, making the toe orange, will it be a visual reminder of my failure and mistakes? Or will it be a powerful symbol of my flexibility and adaptability?

The menfolk clearly couldn't see that an extra three stitches on one needle was any thing to get upset about and certainly couldn't see why I would have to rip back. I decided to adopt their casual attitude and proceeded, using what green remained to make an echo of the cuff pattern. And I am very pleased with how it turned out! I'm happy, not annoyed, that I didn't rip back, and delighted with how the toe looks.


These five socks in the photo began with four balls of Knit Picks Essential. All that remains is that tiny little length of pumpkin yarn. Not a bad output from four balls of yarn.

Road trip wrap up post #4

From my sister-in-law comes a treasure, on loan.

These antique sock blockers came to her from her daughter, with special but secret meaning relating to their origin. But they don't see much sock-blocking action, so for now, they will be treasured here, blocking socks as they are made to do, but will return to their previous domicile at an unnamed date in the future.

This last is a good picture of the Whidbey-Kiwandis Socks, which have been difficult to capture visually.

Singular sock progress

Probably because I started it in April, this singular Hiiumaa sock has seemed to drag on and on. I am pushing to finish it up before I succumb to the temptation to start a new pair. I'm running low on green yarn and i'm curious to see what will end first- the yarn or the sock.

Delicious

Last night, #1Man and I went for a nice evening walk. We wound up at a local bookstore spent a happy hour browsing. Before departing, my husband discovered a cookbook that totally inspired him. Now he's not normally the cookbook buyer in our house. There are a lot of cookbooks on the shelf and that's entirely my fault. However! If he's going to be excited by a cookbook, I'm going to encourage impulse purchasing!

Tonight he made the dish on the front cover and it was sensational. A bajillion flavours in one happy mouthful. 

Road trip wrap-up post #3

So I've gotten into the habit of knitting from Knitting on the Road whenever I'm away from home. It's a cutesy little habit, but fun. This time I upped the cute factor by casting on the Friday Harbor socks on Whidbey Island. We didn't actually make it to Friday Harbor this trip, but we stayed in Anacortes, and spent a day on Whidbey Island, the very places she references in her description of the pattern.



Pattern: Friday Harbor from Knitting on the Road
Yarn: Mountain Colors. I've lost the tag on this yarn. I thought it was the yarn called for in the book, but I also thought it was Bearfoot, and the pattern called for Weavers Wool. So I'm all confused. Ravelry calls Bearfoot fingering, and this is chunkier than fingering. So I just remain confused.



Needle: Size 5 Knitpicks circular. The pattern called for a size 2 needle, so I'd brought along a size 3, expecting to use that. I was swatching in the car on our drive from Anacortes to Langley, and I was so very impatient to get knitting. Size 3 didn't give me gauge, so I pulled out my set of interchangable needles, but size 4 didn't give me gauge, either. I was so relieved that size 5 worked, because then I could STOP SWATCHING AND START KNITTING. Unfortunately, I had stitch gauge but not row gauge, and thus wound up running out of space on the foot before I'd properly completed the second chart.



While it seems like a flagrant act of insubordination to knit Nancy Bush socks on circular needles, I'm just not such a fan of double points. I was grateful that I knew the cuff chart involved a little tweaking and knit-reading on the part of the knitter. If you follow the chart blindly, it comes out wrong. I knit each cuff, heel, and toe separately, and worked the legs and feet together, magic loop style, on the circulars.



The cuffs and legs were knit in the Puget Sound area. The first heel was knit in Wenatchee. The second heel was knit on the beach in Pacific City, Oregon. The feet and toes were completed on the long drive home.

Road trip wrap-up post #2

We took a pilgrimage! We had an evening in Portland, and as well as a lovely visit to Trader Joe's, we made a special journey to Powell's Books. It truly is a City of Books. We only had an hour to explore, which was completely inadequate.

I started out seeking a book on women's history. The section was huge, and had many tantalizing possibilities, although one set that particularly interested me came in four volumes, and they only had two. When I stopped to think about what I really wanted, I realized that I was particularly interested in reading about the librarian of Alexandria. I browsed the section on history of Egypt, but didn't find anything remotely relevant. There were plenty of generic history of Egypt books, but I wanted more than a brief mention of the Alexandria stuff. I also looked at their customer computer, but didn't find anything with a keyword search.

Discouraged, I moved on to browsing through their staff recommendations. There were several books on there that caught my eye. But then I found a book, there in the recommendations, The rise and fall of Alexandria. I was surprised it hadn't been in the Egypt section! While not specifically about the library, which is why I hadn't found in when searching on the computer, it's about the academic and intellectual environment of Alexandria, which suits my purposes just fine. I've read a few chapters and am really enjoying it.

When done browsing the history floor, I wandered down to the craft room. The knitting section was so plentiful I couldn't even begin to explore it, but I did find some very affordable and interesting vegetarian cookbooks.

Powell's is awesome! The entire family was enchanted, and the selection was unbelievable.