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.

I'm skewed

I am still infatuated with the Skew pattern. I'm getting closer and closer to the heel, and it's so intoxicating. I just can't wait to fold up that beautiful heel!

I did start these socks on a size 2 needle, and while my knitting instincts were yelling at me that this gauge was not okay, my calculating brain was determined to stay with a size 2 needle. I finally showed Knitting Coworker, and she confirmed that I needed to drop down a needle, so I started over. I was reluctant, because by going down to a size 1 needle, I have to go up to 84 stitches, but the pertinent numbers are all provided here.

Ok, back to knitting!

Finished Fingerless

Finished on Friday evening! He's been wearing them ever since. I'd like to get some pictures of these in natural light, but I just wanted to show they were done. Hooray!

Really Truly Totally Off the Needles

The Olympic WIP socks are DONE. It was no small matter, either!

While redoing the foot on sock #2, I remembered that I had planned to double strand the toes, just like I had the heels. So I went ahead and knit the toe double-stranded. Which meant that when I was done toe #2, I had to rip out toe #1 and redo it double stranded. As if I wasn't sick to death of these socks already! As I was reknitting toe #1, I recalled that I had previously finished sock #1 only to find it too small, and had ripped out it for more length. So I have knit a total of 5 toes for these 2 socks.

When I take more photos of the finished object, I'll take photos of the heel. The heels fit with a big bump of knitted fabric pointing out where fabric shouldn't be. That's my punishment for trying a new heel: a rotten heel.

But! Both socks are now the same size, and with the exception of the heel, the right size.

Olympic Do-over

Okay! Tonight I ripped out the ill-fated ill-fitted sock foot. Ripping out this colourwork is annoyingly complicated, but not as bad as if there were multiple colours in each row. Off to knit!

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!

New toy!

A couple weeks ago, I drove a half an hour to a yarn store I'd never before visited. It was very luscious! Lots of familiar names in yummy yarns. But my real reason for the visit there was to acquire for myself one of the famous Hiya Hiya 9" circular needles. I've read about them a lot on Ravelry, and some people hate them, and some love them. I suspected I would be in the hate-them camp, seeing as 40" circular magic loop works so well for me. But tonight I cast on a mitten with my new 9" circular, and discovered that I love it. It really does work well, you just knit round and round and round.

Sadly, I really need a size 1; this cuff is too loose. Time for another trip to the yarn store!

twined mittens--the finished object

Today I finished the twined mittens. This makes me very happy! They've been on the needles since December. They needed to be finished now, because the Afghans for Afghans deadline is March 1st. These will leave in the mail Monday. Thanks again to Priscilla for the yarn, and because she's such a dedicated charity knitter, it seemed right to send off into the world to keep some one warm.

Olympic Setback

Well. As part of the Ravelympics, I decided to enter the event "Wipsdancing" for Team Utah. "Wipsdancing" is the effort to finish works-in-progress, and these works must have been dormant for at least a month. I decided I need to work on my St. Peter Port socks, because they've been languishing for so long. The Team Utah is only working on projects by Utah designers, and these socks qualify, being a Nancy Bush design.

It's hard to get going on these socks, I just am not motivated. It might be that the first sock has a merely mediocre fit. The heel is really lousy. But I finished the second sock's heel early this week, which was a feat in itself. Then I avoided knitting all week long. Today I powered through sock two and finished while watching speed skating late tonight.

Then I tried them on.

Something is horribly wrong. One foot fit okay. The other was way too huge. Careful examination revealed that the second sock, while knit the same number of stitches, was significantly bigger. The only explanation I have is that the first sock was knitted on a smaller needle. I did take sock #2 off the needles and put them on a holder for a while. But I measured the needle I used for sock #2 and it's definately a size one. Does this mean I have two size one needles that are two different sizes? Significantly different sized? It's really puzzling. But the second sock is unwearable. And I may just rip out these socks. There is no joy left in them.

52 books in 52 weeks 2009 (belated) wrap up

 Here's my list of books read in 2009. I suspect the list is incomplete: I tend to devour books without thinking to run and add them to a list. Also, these are not necessarily in order.

1. Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons
2. Owl in Love by Patrice Kindl
3. The Last Summer of You and Me by Anne Brashares
4. Looking for Anne of Green Gables by Irene Gammel
5. Practical Magic by Alice Hoffmann
6. The Life All Around Me by Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons
7. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
8. Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
9. Ice Queen by Alice Hoffmann
10. Incantation by Alice Hoffmann
11. Airhead by Meg Cabot
12. Being Nikki by Meg Cabot
13. Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
14. Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce
15. Lament : the Faerie Queen’s Deception by Maggie Stiefvater.
16. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
17. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
18. A virtuous woman by Kaye Gibbons
19. Arsonist’s guide to writers’ homes in New England by Brock Clarke
20. Wolf Speaker by Tamora Pierce
21. Emporer Mage by Tamora Pierce
22. Realms of the Gods by Tamora Pierce
23. Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar
24. All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholemew
25. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by JK Rowling
26. The astonishing life of Octavian Nothing; Traitor to the nation by M.T. Anderson
27. The graveyard book by Neil Gaiman
28. Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (oops. read it twice)
29. Double Identity by Margaret Peterson Haddix
30. Three cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
31. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling
32. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling
33. Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje
34. Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk
35. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling
36. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling
37. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by JK Rowling
38. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
39. Viking Unchained by Sandra Hill
40. Chicks with Sticks; It’s a Purl Thing by Elizabeth Lenhard
41. Room with a View by E.M. Forster
42. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (read this twice)
43. Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison
44. On the Bright Side, I’m Now the Girlfriend of a Sex-God by Louise Rennison
45. Knocked Out By My Nunga-Nungas by Louise Rennison 
46. Dancing in My Nuddy-Pants by Louise Rennison
47. Away Laughing On A Fast Camel by Louise Rennison
48. Then He Ate My Boy-Entrancers by Louise Rennison
49. Startled by his Furry Shorts by Louise Rennison
50. Love is a Many-Trousered Thing by Louise Rennison
51. Stop in the Name of Pants by Louise Rennison
52. Knit Two by Kate Jacobs
53. Chicks With Sticks: Knit Two Together by Elizabeth Lenhard
54. Forever Princess by Meg Cabot
55. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
56. Ship Fever by Andrea Barret
57. Are these my basoomas I see before me? by Louise Rennison
58. Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge
59. The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale
60. Chicks with Sticks (Knitwise) by Elizabeth Lenhard
61. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picault
62. Twelve by Lauren Myracle
63. Thirteen by Lauren Myracle
64. Ballad by Maggie Stiefvater