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.

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.

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.

Pirates--The Finished Object!

Pirate Mittens!
Pattern: From Hello Yarn
Yarn: Black Cascade 220 and Knitpicks Bare
Needles: Size 8 and Size 9 circulars
Modifications: Inner cuff, as described earlier.
Started: Oct 11, 2007
Finished: December 22, 2007



Gracious, it was a rocky journey for these! I decided in early October I would make these for my #1Son. My first attempt was way too small for him. I set that mitten aside, though it was recently finished, and started a larger pair. This mitten was knit up with a tragic critical flaw, and was cast aside. Just last Friday did I get back to it, and this morning I knit the last thumb and wove in all the ends.





Look carefully at that picture of the palms, above. Do you see any inconsistency? I only saw it when the mitten was finished. It's going to be a proud part of the mitten, that screaming little detail that says, "MADE WITH LOVE BY MOM." Did you need a close up of that?

Mitten progress

At this moment, I lack the technology to add a progress photo, though I'd love to show it off. I have finished my first mitten and started the second. A few interesting tidbets:

1) Yesterday, I picked up the mitten after a busy afternoon and started knitting on it. Suddenly, I noticed that I'd totally forgotten about adding the waste thread for the thumb. Panicked, I checked my position on the mitten and discovered that I was precisely 5 stitches after the spot where I needed to start the waste yarn. Not bad, eh? I think I had to rip out 10 or more rows on the last pirate mitten I finished.

2) Tonight I went to Christmas services associated with #1Man's work. As an aside, this is always a treat because I get to belt out sing familiar songs with an enthusiastic congregation. I admit I knitted my way through the services. Just in front of me, a woman was knitting on a very long scarf. And across the aisle, an old acquaintance of mine was knitting on what looked like a hat. I also admit I often knit my way through the Sunday talks. Well, I haven't usually, but ever since the knitting rush began in November, I've gone ahead and knitted there. This evening, looking at all the knitting around me, I wondered if there is historical precedence for knitting in services. I was specifically musing about the times when knitting was more of a necessity and less of a hobby. Did women who needed to knit to keep their families warm put it aside for services? I have knit my way through those Christmas services for years, but I'm thinking that it's time I learn to put it aside for that short time. If I knit my way through everything, then everything is always very similar. I have decided that for Sunday talks and special services, I can put aside my knitting and allow these times to be separate from the every day motions and rituals. (But I will not judge those who do knit during services.)

What's on the needles now

The pirate mittens I frogged back in October are back on the needles. My first try knitting them again was unsatisfactory. I like a tight cuff to keep out the cold. Now the mittens have a built-in cuff.

Personal notes: I cast on 48 stitches on a size 8 needle. I knit in 2x2 rib for 14 rows in black, then broke the yarn and set it aside. Then I cast on 48 stitches on a size 9 needle, and knit the cuff pattern for sixteen rows. Then I slid the black cuff inside the patterned cuff. The next row I knit with black, transferring one stitch from the size 8 needle onto the working needle, and knitting 2 stitches together, one from each cuff. When I had knit an entire row, the cuff was integrated. I switched to the size 8 needle and continued in pattern, adding an extra black row for symmetry to the wrist pattern. (edited for clarity, or at least an attempt at clarity)

I am knitting this pair inside out, in an attempt to tidy up my 2-colour work and keep my floats perfectly tensioned.



Also, my daughter has requested a twin for phanC, so I have cast on. We'll see how much of her I can get done.

Finished mittens

Pirate Mittens
Started Oct 7, 2007
Finished December 12, 2007
Yarn: Colour4Me in Black and in white
Needles: Circular Size 5
Notes: Although I read that this pattern knit up small, I thought I had adjusted for that problem. But then, I had underestimated the size of my son's hands. These mittens were way too small. So I sent them to Soaring Eagle instead.



Camo Mittens
Pattern: House Mittens by Alison Hansel from Charmed Knits: Projects for Fans of Harry Potter (ravelry link)
Yarn: Bernat Camouflage
Needles: Addi Turbo Size 5 circular
Notes: I was about to start making a pair of kids' mittens. I was looking through Charmed Knits, and saw that the house mittens were a good generic mitten pattern, so I followed that pattern, even if they weren't Harry Potter themed. I couldn't make gauge, though, on this pattern, her gauge is crazy-tight. I knitted it at 20 stitches per 4 inches.
Destination: Soaring Eagle Project
Started: Dec. 10, 2007
Finished: Dec 12, 2007

Make mittens!

Here's a shout-out for the Soaring Eagle Project. Make mittens or socks in easy-to-wash yarn for underprivileged kids. I know it's the time of year of mad Christmas knitting, as well as mad oh-my-god-I'm-cold knitting, but if you could squeeze in a couple pairs of mittens, that would be awesome. Mittens are so fast to make! My pirate mittens will be heading that way, but I broke my needle before I could get to the thumb. :( Another pair will be in the works as soon as I can go get something new and washable.

deja vu

The pirate mitten saga continues. After Sunday's tears, I spent Monday pouting, and Tuesday I asked questions. I got some good ideas for making the next pirate mittens better. But I decided I'd better finish the first pair before I went tweaking my own techniques, so I'd not risk having fraternal mittens. So Tuesday night I cast on for mitten #2, pair #1 (too small).

So, nine days after my crazy pirate mitten-knittin day, I found myself in the same coffee shop, drinking the same overpriced hot drink, doing the same pattern, in the same spot in the pattern. I wanted to note that this time, I not only brought waste yarn, but scissors, too. This is evidenced by the nice orange line on the mitten which denotes future thumb placement. The photo also illustrates that I got quite a bit finished, all that remains is adding the thumb and weaving ends. Which will wait for another day, I think it's time to cast on some more socks.

Ouf

Well, my Monday's enthusiasm for pirates has waned into Sunday's tears. This morning I was doing decreases, on the home stretch, when I found a really weird discrepancy. I had nine stitches on the palm, and 13 on the back. I investigated further, and discovered that instead of 48 stitches, I'd cast on 44. HUH? I must have been having a moment of insanity. The reason this went undetected so long is that the palm pattern doesn't require counting or charting. I could easily knit it happily, and it looked just perfect, all the while, being sneakily 4 stitches shy. Hello, frog pond.

what the mail brought

and everybody here was a friend of mine,
yesterday...

All day I waited excited for my Lucky Lurker October Yarn. I saw Sherri's yesterday, and expected mine to arrive today. When I arrived home there were two things waiting for me, but neither were my Lucky Lurker Yarn. One was my new Freur CD, Doot-Doot, and the other a very lonely cat.

This album was one of my most difficult hard-to-find albums in the late 80s. I searched record store after record store for it. We finally heard a rumour of a store that could actually get this album, and a friend and I both ordered it from them. What we got was a cassette, (we were expecting an LP) and as best we could tell, it was a bootlegged cassette. However, we had searched so long and so hard for this album that we each got it anyway.

I've searched for Freur in a digital format in recent years many times, but usually all I've found have been very expensive used copies or compilations with just Doot-Doot on it. There is actually an in-print version of Doot-Doot available on Amazon, but it lacks the bonus tracks. This album had the super hard-to-find Devil in Darkness, which I was adamant about getting, and came for the reasonable price of $18.99 from a marketplace seller.

So when I came home to find the album finally here, I settled down to listen and also snuggle our poor lonely cat. She would climb up, get very comfortable, drifting into one of those deep snoozes that only cats snooze. And then have sudden! cat! errands! to attend to and dash off. After a few minutes she'd come back and get cozy again. In between the cat snuggling, I managed to cast on the newest pirate mittens, while listening to the new album. It definitely took me back to the days of vinyl, when every alternative album scored was an accomplishment of good record shopping, rather than a result of successful web shopping. Freur is a pretty electronic band, and they pioneered the concept of having an unpronounceable symbol for their name, driving record stores up the wall as they tried to figure out where to file it. They were eventually forced to adopt a more fileable name.

Today I officially finished the double rolled mittens. The final shagging was completed in the weeee hours, after a rowdy cat fight outside woke me up at 4am. The shagging is done by wrapping yarn through the ribbing and around a pencil, and then clipping the yarn.





Pattern: Double Rolled Mittens from Favorite Mittens
Yarn: Peace Fleece, with Spinderella's Thrums used for the fuzzy inside.
Needle: Size 9 Addi Turbo Circular
Started: I forget when I started these. February or March 2007.
Finished: October 11, 2007.
Notes: I had the worst time getting the mittens to match. Even when I thought I had them perfectly matched, after binding off, I found one still a little smaller than the other. The shag is interesting, it doesn't look as full as the pictures in the book. I wish I'd used a chunky marker instead of a colour pencil to wrap the shag around.

Lastly, I leave you with the image of the second try at pirate mittens. I found some black cascade 220 in my stash. This was purchased to contrast with some Kureyon I have. I also found some Knit Picks bare. That was purchased to dye and knit into a kitty-pi. I'm trying very hard to allow myself to redirect yarn in my stash. And if I ever do wind up knitting a kitty-pi, or the mysterious Kureyon project, I can replace what I need then. No sense in keeping the yarn saved for future projects while purchasing new yarn for present projects. Right? This new mitten is being knit on size 9 circular needles.

Too much faith

Okay, I admit that Monday was a little scary. That's why on Tuesday, I took a walk at lunch instead of knitting. Today, I upped that and took a different project with me to work and dance class.

Turns out I only had 10 minutes to knit at lunch, and when I puled out the project, I discovered that a needle had gotten pulled all the way out. So I spent the entire 10 minutes just getting the project back on the needles all properly.

During the girlees dance class, I finished up the body of the current babe. This does not mean she's anywhere near to be done. The next step is the face, which always takes some time. So I will need a weekend afternoon all to myself when I can sit down with my supplies and craft a good face. After that will be stuffing, closing her up, and knitting the limbs, which is fairly simple. And then after that comes the hair, which is always a Big Project. As usual, I knit the body in the round rather than in two flat pieces, as suggested in the book, Knitted Babes.


Today I finished up Pirate Mitten #1. Well, I still need to pull the yarn through the end of the mitten. Turns out I had way too much faith, here. I had read that the pattern fits tight, so I went up a couple needle sizes and hoped that would fix the problem. As I knit it, I could tell it was tight on me, but I still had hope. I figured that once the thumb had somewhere to go, the mitten wouldn't be quite so crowded. I also assumed that since the giftee on this mitten is only 12 years old, it would fit him.

Once I got the thumb opening, I discovered that the mitten was still abominably tight. So I caught my son this morning, just woken up, and asked to compare some measurements. I measured his hand, I measured his feet, plus a bonus measure of his crown. I went away happy, he shrugged and said, "whatever..." and went on with his breakfast. Fortunately he's accustomed to his mother behaving like that. But what I discovered with his measurements is that while his hand is shorter than mine, it's fatter. I blame all that guitar playing.


Next stop, mitten in much larger needles, perhaps with extra stitches? The current pair will go on hold until after his bday. Perhaps it will go to a charity. I saw today that the Soaring Eagle Project is considering mittens. These would be perfect for that.

Desperate times, desperate measures

So it's like this. That pirate pattern has consumed me. Don't ask me why. I have no explanation. I started the cuff last night, and by lights-out time, I had it finished. But I didn't go to bed. I stayed up and knitted 7 more rows, because I couldn't stop. By that point, I some how managed to convince myself that Future Valerie needed Present Valerie to get some sleep so that Future Valerie could knit with wild abandon. So I gave up and went to sleep. Reluctantly. Lucky thing, I was in one of those crazed hazes where I could have easily knit until 3am.

So I went to sleep, and all I did was dream of Pirate Mittens. Knit in about every yarn in the house.

Today I rushed off to work, and all day, I was wanting to ditch all the cataloguing and pull out my knitting. Thank god for lunch break, which is time for knitting, with a little bit of eating snuck in.

That's when I discovered The Problem. I was going to be taking little girls to their dance class after work, and that involves an hour in a coffee shop, knitting. But I was working my way steadily towards the part where "waste yarn" was required and I had no waste yarn. I searched my desk drawers and shelves, convinced I would find some forgotten yarn somewhere, but alas, no yarn. I have a knitting coworker, but although she had brought a project with her, the yarn was balled up, with the spare end inside the ball and inaccessible.

However, my coworker was very understanding, and started making suggestions "Do we have twine?" and digging through her drawers to find something that I could knit in as waste yarn. "headphones?" "lanyard?"

Eventually, we settled upon this: medical tape, taken from a first aid kit, carefully rolled up to create a worsted weight substitute. Check it out...



And in this next picture, the rolled up medical tape has been knit into the mitten. It's difficult to see, being that it's white, but it's that extra thick white line on the left side in the middle. Seeeeee?

knitting spasm

So I've been dreaming of a number of projects, as my several Works in Progress have been coming to a close. There's my tofutsies, and Jarbo, and the knee socks or toe socks for my daughter...

So I had this spasm and cast on Pirate Mittens instead. We were hiking today, and it was cold and snowy, and my son kept making snowballs until his hands were little fingers of ice. And he says his old gloves are falling apart. So.... I cast on pirate mittens. We'll see how it goes. I'm trying to knit two at the same time, from the same balls of yarn, which is causing much tangling.