Caked Noro

Well, the titanium socks just need to be bound off, and my dad's socks are at the heel, but the numbers don't add up, so they'll require more problem solving.

What to do? Cake some Noro! MMMMmmm, Noro cakes!

Herbivore, finished object

Yarn: Skinny Bugga in Lubber Grasshopper (mmm-mmm good!)
Needle: Circular size 7
Pattern: Stephen West's Herbivore (ravelry link, if you're interested and aren't a member of ravelry, sign up. it's worth it.)
Notes: The pattern says to knit until the centre spine measures 12".  That was a little too small for me.  I knit until I couldn't get any more pattern repeats out of the yarn.  There were 5 grams left when I bound off.

Yarn 4 yarn--May Gothsocks Club Spoilers inside

When I received the May Gothsocks Club shipment, I knew that it was a yarn that needed to be with someone who would love it madly. As always, as soon as the spoiler pics were released, there were people looking to acquire it, so trading it was no problem.

I received Bugga Ruby Tailed Wasp from the lovely MissTwilight on Ravelry. It snuggles up with me at night and keeps me warm.

Spoiler below

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And in return, I sent her the Alice-inspired "Drink me" colourway. Gorgeous, pettably soft, but not something I would have knit up. I'm glad she can give it a Good Home.

I also gave up my spot in the Gothsocks club, allowing one more lucky soul to get in. I only have so much yarn money, and I need to be able to choose what colours and yarns to buy when I do splurge. But I still have the June yarn to come!

when it all falls apart

I really do like center-pull balls. For my routines, they work the best, and keep the yarn tidy and behaving. However, when they get low, really low, they get all discombobulated, and that's when it's a bummer.

Bullied by wings

Well! I was knitting along on my titanium socks and I'm really only 14 or 21 rows from the end. But then I started dreaming about Lubber Grasshopper, and couldn't stop. The titanium yarn was the same way, creeping into my consciousness and demanding to be knit up. The this other yarn edged out titanium and forced me to take up my needles and knit.

I'm knitting the Stephen West pattern "herbivore". The sharp angles and crisp texture speak of the yarn's namesake, grasshoppers, with their sharp angular legs. They also speak of dragon wings, huge, intimidating, sharp and angular, but delicate and graceful in luminous colours.

Linger

Ooooh la la! Linger is coming!

What's in progress now, Part Two

With my mom's socks finished, and my dad's socks well underway, but not able to be gifted before he left, my attention has wandered back to the titanium socks, and I split my knitting time between the Skews and these.

I've just started the gusset on sock #2, and I'm hoping to contain the pool to one side like I did on the first sock.

Back to knitting!

What's in progress now, part one

Last week, my parents visited. It was their first visit in 5 years. We just live a little too far away to get many visits. Sadly, life does not stop for visits, and we still had school/work/ballet/softball. But I did fix them dinner every evening, Dad fixed several things around the house, and we had a lovely visit.

Before they arrived, I finished my mom's socks. I immediately started a pair for my dad. I managed to finish one sock, so he could try it on, but didn't get the second done before they left. Sadly, the heel is tough to get on, but he still thinks he'll wear them, as they seem to fit well once on. I'm using Trekking that I bought last November specifically for this purpose. In fact, I've knitted from all the yarn I bought that time, although one skein still has enough left for socks.

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!

Acquisitions, Gothsocks Club Spoiler

Attention all ye readers! If you happen to be in the Gothsocks club and you haven't received your April shipment, beware! The picture is below. (I'm pretty sure no one would find it by accident, but there's the alert, just in case.)

Okay, I have to admit, I'm still acquiring yarn faster than I can knit it. But selectively.

First of all, I needed a new order of Noro for a donation piece I'm going to make. I just happened to buy a couple of skeins of the highly-coveted Skinny Bugga to fill up my shopping cart. The colours are gorgeously saturated, and are called "Lubber Grasshopper" (the left skein) and "Eurota Purplewing" (the skein 2nd from left).(ETA: Ordered from The Loopy Ewe, of course, and received only two days after ordering.

 

Also new to my yarn stash is the March Gothsocks colour, Godric's Glory. If you watch True Blood, it makes sense to you. If you don't, like me, you can still admire the pretty, pretty sparkly stripes.

 

April Spoiler, here.


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This is called "Frakkin Toaster" and it's inspired by Battlestar Galactica. It's a bamboo/merino/nylon blend and begs to be something wispy worn around the neck.

 

Sob. I need more knitting time!

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??

Ravelry Goodies

For those of you who use Ravelry, check out this page of lesser-known goodies. This showed me how to get progress bars on my blog, which gives me happiness.

splish splash

In a previous post, I worried about the gussets pooling. Boy howdy, did they ever! Those beauteamous stripes just oozed into a slick smear. Fortunately, the smear confined itself to one side, so I was able to make that side the heel. We'll see what can be done about sock #2.

A skewed-up finished object

For a long time, my daughter has wanted socks out of fingering weight yarn, and finally she has some.

Pattern: Skew

Yarn: Online Supersocke

Needle: Size 1

Modifications: Knit as instructed at a smaller gauge to fit a slimmer foot.

Issues: it fits perfectly, but it's difficult to get over her heel. I suspect here's another pair of socks she'll never wear.

Those darned right twists

Me: These right twists are going to kill me.
Him: I hope those aren't your last words!
Me: That would suck, eh?
Him: I'd put it on your gravestone.
Me: In the stress of my demise, you'd forget the exact words, and there'd be a misquote on my grave.
Him: It's not that difficult. "These right twists are going to kill me." I'd get it right.

The pattern is Yarnissima's Firestarter. The yarn is Stitchjones' Titanium Sock. At 72 stitches around and 10spi, this yarn knits up perfectly. I'm not sure I'll like the gussets. I suspect they'll pool.

The right twists have been the worst part of this pattern. I recall warriors in Sock Wars complaining about the right twist. They did a workaround that involved a k2tog, but what with the purls and the ktbl, that's not an option here. I unvented a workaround in which I slip both stitches to the right needle, and do a mirror image of the process for the left twist. Works beautifully!

A year in the making

I started this sock a year ago on a road trip. I just returned from a road trip to the very same place, and I found myself knitting on the sock again. I had previously decided to rip out the heel and redo, but I changed my mind.

I took this picture to show the kind of scenery I was enjoying while knitting, but knitters might notice something interesting about this picture. Look at the needles. Can you see that one is missing? When I put the knitting into my knitting bag, I some how pulled out a double-point and didn't notice. Directly after taking this photo, I put the double-point back into the knitting. It actually went back in quite smoothly.

 

The yarn is Knitpicks, the discontinued Essentials. It's really quite soft and lovely to touch, in sharp contrast to some other Essentials I have.

 

I started the toe as written, and then remembered that I wanted a double-stranded toe. I ripped out 12 rows of toe and redid the toe to match the heel. That didn't turn out so well. The toe was too pointy to fit a human toe, and the decreases made the chequerboard look messy, not cute. I ripped out the double-stranded toe, and redid it as written in the pattern, finishing just as we arrived home this afternoon. A year later, one sock complete.

 

The pattern is Hiiumaa from Knitting on the Road

Two Skew

 

It seems like I can't count. I make a LOT of errors while knitting this pattern. For that black and white sock, I reknit so many times, I'm convinced I could have made a complete second sock in the time I spent fixing errors. Not big errors, just little ones where I find I'm one or two stitches off.

 

Interestingly, I'm making another pair just like this one! I'm still on the foot repeats.

 

So Cute!

I was looking through my knitting books last night when I discovered this book. I bought it in Spain. Sadly, I've quite neglected it, because I don't understand anything it says. But the animals are adorable!

Online Superskew

My daughter wanted a pair of those "sideways socks". Skew isn't really sideways, but that's what she calls it. This necessitated some yarn shopping to get the perfect yarn. And it is perfect! It's just her colours. Even better, I went to buy it and it was 30% off.

 

I cast on right away. To make them fit her slender foot, I'm knitting the pattern as written, but at a smaller gauge.

 

These pictures show the sock right before the "origami moment", just ready to kitchener the heel shut.

 

Off to kitchener.

Yarn store grumble

Whine, whine, it's my blog and I'll whine if I want to.

I went to a yarn store yesterday. I generally don't go to this store. A few years ago I went there to buy a needle, and stood there by the counter holding the needle for a full fifteen minutes while the worker chatted and knitted in the next room, ignoring my attempts to get her attention. I finally put the needle back and drove to a yarn store in a different community so I could buy the needle from some one who might possibly give a flying freak.

But I went there again, yesterday, because they're the only local place that sells the sock yarn I was looking for. The worker was helping another customer. She asked the customer a question, and while the lady was starting to answer, she breezed past me and asked, "Are you finding everything okay?" Actually, I wasn't, and I needed help, but the circumstances--she in the middle of a conversation with another customer--demanded of my own personal etiquette that I answer the most truthfully I could without engaging her, "For now." When she finally finished with the customer, I turned to ask my question, but she whipped out her cell phone and dialed, telling the person on the other end that she was just leaving now. Then, right on cue, another employee walked in, and they had to greet each other and discuss each other's health. By the time the first employee left, I had been wanting help for twenty minutes, and was starting to run late. The new employee said, "I'm guessing you don't need any help, or else she would have been following you around." Funny, that, what an inflated idea she has of her coworker's customer service practices. I responded, "Actually, I'm interested in this pattern here" and finally got the info I needed. She was very nice, and offered pattern assistance if I needed it.

By the time I got out of there, I was late for my coffee date, but fortunately, everybody else was later. All good, there.

Days like that make me not sorry to order things online. It still puzzles me, how common it is to read stories of yarn stores with lousy and adversarial customer service. They must not really need consistently good customer service, I guess.