koigu progress

We have more Koigu sock:


We are up the leg almost to the point where the ribbing might start. The arrow shows where the scrap-sock yarn is and where the afterthought heel will be. It's about 6 5/8 inches up from the toe. Because that's where the heel seemed to be relative to the toe on rpm. I can always tell where to start the toe, when the sock is for me, on a top-down sock. But I struggle with where to put the heel on a toe-up sock. This time, we have a measurement. So if it works out, that's the magic number. At least if the sock's for me.

This sock has 48 stitches going round and round so the afterthought heel will be on 26 (half of 48 is 24, plus an extra on each end) . It is a little fiddley to put in the scrap yarn when knitting magic-loop style, when I want them to go more than half way around, which I do. Let me know if you want details on the fiddling. Of course, when I pick up the stitches, there will be a couple extra in each corner, so the heel will start out with about 30 stitches.

I need to get the heel knitted in before I do lots of ribbing so there's plenty of yarn.
I'm about to the point on this sock where she will come off the circ and wait on dpns for her little sock buddy.

The rpm socks are done, kitchenered and all, and have been worn to work and to knit night and are in the laundry. Pics to come maybe next week.

Tomorrow I'm planning a post following up on "which sock" in early January. And a ytd summary of FOs and UFOs.

more later,
j

p.s. I am upgraded to the new blogger. Didn't seem to have much choice.
And everything seems to be working ok. So far.
Let me know if everything is not working out from the blog reading side.

koigu foot one plus shrug ufo

There was knitting on koigu foot 1. I continued from the magic cast-on from yesterday. Increasing to 48 then two plain rows then another increase brings us to 52. I knit two plain rows after reaching 52 and was planning to go to 54 or 56 as that is what usually fits me. But I stiopped at 52 because, well, it looked big enought. There was lots more knitting. And it looked a little big but it wasn't convenient to try it on so there was more knitting. I got to here:

and tried it on and it was too big. Seriously too big. And I liked this yarn a lot so I was not willing to keep knitting and find someone else who likes it too. So there was some frogging. Back to 48.


and there was re-knitting. This last pic was taken outdoors so the colors are pretty good. At least on my moniter.


In other knitting news, the shrug from some months ago had paid its pennance, so she came out of the time-out, and the rib bind-off was undone. No small feat considering the slubbiness of the yarn. Then I worked a sewn cast-off. Again, no small feat considering the slubbiness and bulkiness. And the length of yarn needed for cast-off. There were six feet of yarn, yes, two yards, from the unbinding-off (is there such a term? I guess there is now). I could not stomach dragging six feet of yarn through the sewing so I halfed it. And dragged three feet in and out of a lot of stitches. When the yarn ran out there were about 30 stitches left so I did some quick estimating and cut another piece about a yard and a half long and dragged it through the remaining stitches.

So there is a try-on to check it out. This sewn bind off is just about right. Not wonderful or perfect but pretty good and certainly sooo much better than before. We have the show for dh. I ask his opinion on the sleeves. Whether they should be full length or just below the elbow (as per the patt) and he says something is wrong with the sleeves. He says they don't match. I repeat my question; he repeats his observation. I look at the sleeves and understand his point. One has several inches of ribbing. One is held on a provisional cast-on. They don't match but I'm not at all concerned about that. I'm trying to figure out what they want to be and he is worried one sleeve will be left behind...


There will be ribbing on sleeve 2. They will match. And I think they will be full length.

more later,
j

rpm is done ...almost

We have toes and heels.


With lots of stitches on holder needles. Maybe I'll be in a mood to kitchener tomorrow. And if we have sunshine, I'll try to get an outdoors picture.

And I had some knitting time at the farm. And more knitting time this evening when we went to dinner and had to wait a bit. Well, actually, I was so close that I put in the last few decreases at the table while we waited to order.

All that's left is to run the yarn through the half dozen stitches that are left. I always run the yarn around twice. And there's some yarn left. I'm tired of it so it is available. First offer is to my Sisters of the Wool.

If you've been reading along, you will notice that I've completed several projects over the last week. So I started a new sock. It's the Koigu that got frogged earlier in the week. I'm using Judy's magic cast-on from knitty.



One more thing. We had a nice delivery in the mail. Socks that rock light weight. I got it from a knitter on KR. The former owner had swatched it and decided it wasn't her color and rewound it. There's no label but she said it was Fire on the Mountain. This yarn is going to be fairly high on the list when it tells me what it wants to be. Probably something fairly simple as these colors seem to want to do the talking.


more later,
j

side line project -- aqua hat

Let's just say I needed something easier than socks,
socks that need a heel knitted, so:



and up close:



I was going to a soap dinner with a friend last night, and it was a long drive (she was driving) and I needed something to knit during the drive, with poor light, and minimal attention to the knitting, so I grabbed the yarn left from the aqua socks finished last weekend. There's really quite a bit of it, and some dye-yur-own sock yarn (two strands of aqua, one strand of dye-yur) and a 7us circ (16 inch). I cast on 54. It was going to be 48 but 48 stitches didn't seems to want to stretch around the circ. 54 wasn't too happy to stretch around either but it did. Actually, it was 55 and I knit together the first and last to make the join "nice" and connected.

Then I knit around once, because I usually do. Then I started a k3, p3 rib. But not your normal k3 p3 rib. I was inspired by a neck warmer (or maybe she has a more elegant name, but functionally it was a neck warmer) that Angela was knitting at knit night. It was of her own design and the k3, p3 rib moved diagonally around by shifting over by one stitch every two rows. Now you might say I stole her design, but we'll say I was inspired by her design. There was a recent discussion on our SOW yahoo group about reverse engineering and inspiration. And she was ok with the inspirational use of others designs. Hope it applies also when it was hers. Thanks Angela.

In sock news, and there will be sock heel knitting when I finish this post (and read a couple of blogs), I wanted to answer Deborah's inquiry in the comments. She asked about the heel on rpm. Actually, it's a method I use for afterthought heels, and it is my standard method for toes, for socks that are knit top-down. It is a double decrease every other row. And the double decrease is a Jeri special. I described it, or a variation of it, in a very early blog post.

To do this special double decrease, I mark the center stitch on each side. I place a marker just after the chosen stitch. When I get to two stitches before the marker, I k2tog, remove the marker and place the resultant stitch back on the left needle. Then I ssk (slip as if to knit, slip as if to purl and knit the two together through the back loops). And place the marker back. Generally I knit one row with this decrease on both sides, then knit one row plain. But on toes, after some point where about half of the decreases are done, I decrease on every row. This gives me a rounder result.

If anyone knows where some knitting authority, or someone who writes knitting books, who has written about this double decrease, please let me know. If it has a name (or names), I might want to call it by the right name(s).

more later,
j

rpm progress

There is progress on rpm. Both socks are knitted down to where the toe may start. I say may because I have to put in the heel on #2 before I can tell for sure. You can see the dpns in place where a few rows of heel are in the knitting.

The circ is still in place on #2 for continuing on the toe. #1 has some spare dpns as holders. The heel on #1 is on holders, done except for the grafting. I will save all the grafting to do at the end. Two toes and two heels. I hope I'll be in a kitchenering mood when I get there.

Just for the record, there were 29 stitches knitted with scrap yarn for the afterthought heel. Half of 53 is 26.5 which rounds up to 27. Plus 2 (an extra on each end) is 29. Seemed like a good number. After picking out the scrap yarn and picking up the stitches, and picking up two extras in each corner, there were 62 stitches in the starting heel row. Doesn't exactly add up, but I'm ok with it. Heel #1 worked out fine. Heel #2 should be done tomorrow by the end of GA (Gray's Anatomy.)

Stay tuned. I expect rpm to be done this week.

j

p.s. I wore Crystal Cove to knit night last night. Those knitter friends of mine do appreciate a new handknit sweater. I wore her to work yesterday too. No one said anything except for friends when I gave them the "look at my new sweater I just knitted". Then they have to say something nice.

knit 1 frog 1

Another ufo dragged to the FO world:



I tracked back on my blog to find that I started it last July. There are links there to the pattern on the knitting nonsense website. And records there of the yarn, Peaches & Creme Potpourri 178 (dl 7325), which is a good thing because there is no longer a ball band with the yarn. Blogs are good for knitting records.


And one frogged project. That gets it out of the in-process count, in my book:


This is Koigu kpppm P714 V00223-02 (I don't know which code is the color and which is the dye lot, no matter. I have two balls which will make two socks... but I digress...).

A toe was knit. And few (very few) rows of foot. I don't know what the pattern was. It didn't fit. It is no more. After finishing another wip or two, it will be re cast on and in-the-knitting again.

It's knit night tonight so, more later,
j

one heel

I did a few rows of rpm foot at lunch time at work.

And this evening I knitted one rpm heel:



The other sock is a front view showing the "burning out" of the purl diagonals. I'll get you a close up macro pic tomorrow or Wednesday. Probably Wednesday because Tuesday is knit night. yea!
j

p.s. We just passed 5000 views. Thanks to all my readers for being here with me.

knitting du jour -- rpm

Next on the needles, or should I say next to have my hands on their needles, is the rpm sock:


and closer, showing the scrap yarn where the heel will go (I wasn't in a heely mood). I'm doing an afterthought heel over 29 stitches (sock CO was 53):

One sock is just past the heel yarn, waiting on dpns (Crystal Palace 1s) The other sock is a couple inches past the heel yarn. On knitpicks options circs size 1, which is really a 1.5, like the Addi 1.

And my method for knitting the instep, a chart.
Following the chart, I'm letting each "row" of purls "burn out" and starting no more. Pic tomorrow of how that works.

I know this does not agree with the original pattern, which is at this point, for me, the inspiration that started this sock.


These socks were number 6 on the sock list from my post on Jan 5. Based on a blog post last year, I started these on July 5 back when the knitty extremities issue came out. So, I guess it is time they had a chance to get knitted. And finished. I'm counting on you to keep me honest.

There are some good rpm pattern whispers in the July post if you haven't been reading me for long.


In other knitting news, I've been reading my new Nancy Bush vintage socks book. There are lots of socks in there I might try. Or take inspiration from. And lots of new flavors of heels and toes. I may have to make some stitch count adjustments to fit me and the yarn I may choose to use to knit them. And I'll try to knit with stash yarn as far as I can. But I thought I'd check for errata before starting any projects from the book. And there is some, though I had a little trouble finding it because they don't call it errata over at interweave. They call it corrections. There are only two patts with minor issues. For the record, it is at:
http://www.interweave.com/knit/books/be_knitting_vintage.asp

more later,
j

Crystal Cove finito

Crystal Cove is an FO. First finished sweater of 2007. Started after Christmas, finished January 20, 2007.



One of these pics is the front and one is the back. The striping is similar but distinct. It is whatever the yarn wanted to do. The back and front shaping is the same. [Fortunately my shape is similar too.]

Specs:
Crystal Cove pattern from Jill at Just One More Row
pattern extended by a gauge calculation to suite my blossom gauge
Yarn Noro Blossom 10 skeins ( each 40 grams) color 11 lot D
40%wool, 30%kid mohair, 20%silk, 10%nylon
Seamed with Shetland (DK by Wendy) 100% wool shade/col 84 light brown/tan
Needles size 9us Addi Natura circ (24") (3 needle bind-off on side seams Addi 10)


FO #2 of the day
Aqua Dancing socks


And a view of a bit of pooling:


Specs are sketchy as these have been ufo's for a while. I believe I started them in Plano at the soap convention in mid-2005. They were top downs but I found that I had knitted the cuffs in two styles. One k1p1, and one k2p2. I found this when responding to a what's your favorite rib on KR. I should have left them, but no. So I ripped back the k2p2 and reknit it as k1p1 and bound off. Loosely with a larger needle. And it was still too tight to put on without a struggle and a risk of popping the binding. So I attempted to rip back again and something got stuck and it wouldn't pick loose. And wouldn't pick loose. So I got irritated and jammed them in a ziplock. And at some point, I wanted the needles as I foung the sock waiting on a pair of size 1 metal straights. With the stitches willy nilly, this way and that, as far as orientation. I have no explanation.

And they've been in time-out. For a while. A long while. Well, I guess they decided to cooperate because today, I gently pulled the yarn on the first stitch and it came right out. I have no explanation except that maybe the knitting fairies were on my side today. Then I transferred the stitches to dpns and picked through them with a spare dpn to get all the stitches with their leading legs in the front. And I counted the stitches. 56. Sounded logical and reasonable (I didn't count the other sock) so I went with it and knit 11 rounds (about a knuckles worth) of k1p1. Then a sewn cast-off which I have found to be sooo wonderful for sock tops.

The pattern is a k3p1 rib which I've used for several pairs of socks. I knit the last rib with Crystal Palace bamboo dpns size 1us. I think this is the needle set that I knit the rest of the sock but I can't be sure. As I wasn't blogging (or recording results in any organized way) then.

The yarn is knitpicks Dancing color 23591 lot 60860. I think it's the color called Hula but I'm not sure as there is no color name on the label. It is 41%cotton, 39%wool, 13%nylon, 7%elastic.


This post is getting long, but there is one more bit of knitting news. I got a barnes and noble gift certificate for Christmas and used it this evening to buy a new knitting book:


So I'm going to go curl up and read some,
j

more patts with probs

One of my co-workers bought me a stitch n' bitch page a day calendar. He haunts the discount stores and found it for 99 cents a week or so after the new year had started. So I enjoy peeling off a page a day (or two, are there calendar police checking to see if I read ahead) and seeing the yarns and reading the knitting goodies and reading a pattern on Fridays.

This week the pattern is a cabled pullover named Musique. It is knit with Crystal Palace Musique yarn which is, I guess, why the calendar people, or whoever named the sweater, named it Musique. Go figure.

The calendar people don't tell you this, but a very very similar sweater is available for free on the Crystal Palace site where they feature patterns for their Musique yarn. You can get it at this link.

Anyways, there are some issues with the pattern in the page a day calendar...

1) The pattern defines a special stitch which it calls C8F. It is a cable stitch done over eight stitches where are four stitches are slipped to a cable needle and held in front. The key error is on Row 6 where the pattern calls for a C4F. C4F is not defined as a special stitch though from the definition provided for C8F, I can guess what they mean by C4F. However, The C4F is knitted in the same part of a row where there is k8 on other right side rows and p8 on other wrong side rows, so I'm guessing the pattern should have said C8F.

2) There is some armhole shaping specified for the back but none for the front. Is this as intended?

3) The pattern suffers from a common malady where it is thought that people who have a larger finished chest measurement have longer arms. I think this is generally not the case.

4) The yarn requirements on the printed calendar are different from the free online pattern at the link above. The printed copy calls for 10,(10,12) balls but the online pattern calls for 10,(11,12) balls. I tend to believe the online version, that the medium size will require more yarn than the small size.

I emailed the calendar people and the Crystal Palace people and the pattern author who I tracked down through an equilter site she runs or owns or is affiliated with. The author answered.

1) She said the C4F must have arisen by some editing. The online pattern does not have this problem.

2) The lack of front armhole shaping is common between the online pattern and the calendar pattern. She said no one had ever noticed it. And she said that she would fix the online pattern.

3) She said sometimes their patterns say "or until desired length" regarding sleeve lengths. This one doesn't but I suggest you take your desired sleeve length into account.

4) And if you're making a size medium, get an extra ball of yarn.

more later,
j


p.s. Crystal Cove is knitted. And the little balls of yarn are smaller, but there was plenty. She is waiting to be seamed and blocked. And I'm not in a seaming mood just now. Tomorrow, I think.

fun fur time is over

Here we have two fun fur hats:


and a smidge of fun fur left over


For the record, the greener, more authentically fun furry hat was knit from Yarn Bee Wild Child eyelash yarn in the aquamarine color. The bluer hat is Moda Dea Dream color 3502, officially called lavender but it looks blue to me. Moda Dea is fluffy and soft though not furry. Both were double stranded with Caron Simply Soft no dye lot in country blue 2626. Both were knit with a long long (maybe 60") Addi turbo size 10US in the magic loop style. If I were going to knit many of these I'd get a 16" circ and dispense with all the loop pulling, or get a 32" circ, or size 10 tips and a 32" options cord. But for two hats, I used a needle I had, and it did the job. Both used a caston of 60, one row of knit then join up and knit circularly. The blue hat has two rows of k2p2 rib to stop the curls. The furry hat has two rows of seed to stop the curls. I did not think I had enough yarn to knit an extra inch or two of curl.

These hats are for the fun fur hat project for kids going through chemo. I'll be mailing them in a couple of weeks after I collect a few more from my Sisters Of the Wool. Grace was handing out fun fur from her stash last night.

Then back to regularly scheduled sweater knitting. Crystal Cove is so close. I'll show you tomorrow.

more later,
j

Where's the errata Wednesday

There’s a free pattern available on the interweave site. You have to sign up with your name and email addy but you don’t have to have a magazine subscription. It’s called the Stitch N’ Pitch Sock. There are a few problems with this pattern imho.

Not sure this link will work if you’re not signed up. This pic won't be posted here long.

1) The yarn called for is Lily Chin Signature Collection Gramercy. I’ve never heard of it but that’s not unusual since I don’t buy many yarns promoted by name knitters. It is described as 100% Superwash Merino wool 127 yd 116 m /50 g. Well, that’s not normally considered sock weight yarn in my book. I’d call it dk based on the yardage per 50 g. I tried making socks with heavier weight yarns. If you look back a year or so, you'll see my questions on KR. But I got over it. And you can use any yarn to make socks so I’ll let this one go.

2) The pattern calls for 3 skeins of the above Lily Chin yarn in white and 1 ball of purple. The modeled sock shows another darker color, maybe navy or black (not sure what the rockies colors are) but the patt doesn’t call for any darker yarn in the supply list or the knitting instructions. So following the instructions, I don’t think you’d get a sock that looks like the pictured sock. You’d get a white sock with a couple purple stripes. Now you can use any colors you want so we could let this one go too.

3) The rated pattern gauge is 15 sts per 2 inches. That's 7 ½ stitches per inch. The cast on is 64. That makes a sock that is 8.5333 inches around. Let’s say 8 ½. However the finished size per the pattern is 7 ½ foot circumference. Umm 8 ½ is more than 7 ½. And in terms of socks an inch makes a lot of difference. In this case 13.3 percent. So maybe the rated gauge is wrong. Which I doubt considering the yarn size (see #1 above). Or the pattern projected finished size is wrong. And if you can’t cinch that dk weight yarn down to 7 ½ stitches per inch, your sock will be even bigger.

As usual, if I hear that errata is posted, I'll let you know. Until then, pick your own yarn, and pick your own colors and how many colors you want, and recalculate the cast-on based on your gauge.

more later,
j

bubble wrap hat

The bubble wrap hat is done, woven in and everything:


The pattern is from Lark's blog (Dec 18, 2006 post) It's a cute pattern and an easy one-skein knit. She posted about it on the lonesome skein yahoo group. I asked for the pattern and so did others so she blogged it. I knit it with Paton's Decor and cast-on 96 instead of 88 per the pattern, with a size 7US 16 inch circ (Clover I think). Why I cast-on more, I don't know, but it's probably a good thing because my gauge was closer to 4.5 spi instead of Lark's 4 spi.

And in order to start the decreases after a k2p2 set, I knit it to about 6". Otherwise it would have been just a smidge over 5" and I was afraid that would make a too shallow hat.

The decreases as written in the pattern, are much more dramatic than I usually do (usually 7 per row and every other row vs. halfing the stitches in each decrease row, and more plain rows between decreases) but I went with it and it works. The colorway is Mountain Top varg. And there are 36 grams left.

more later,
j

fun fur hat

There is fun fur in my stash. Not exactly sure how it happened. I'm usually a wool/alpaca/cotton knitter.

I remember I was thinking about mixing some into mom's Christmas shawl and it was half price at Hobby Lobby... and then it was in my basket. I've been wondering what to do with it and found a blog today where I'm knitting as fast as I can linked to Kate's Minestrone soup blog . Kate is collecting fun fur hats for kid's with cancer. So I think I'll use up that fun fur and knit a hat. Then I find that I have two skeins of it. So maybe there will be two hats? I'm going to strand it with the Caron acrylic using the no hair day hat pattern that Kate sent when I signed up.


more later,
j




http://ma2ut.blogspot.com/2007/01/i-love-fun-fur.html

Crystal cove with more sleeves

We have more sleeves. Do you like the basting? And you may see that a dpn can serve as a temporary "pin"?


We are almost there. Another inch or two on each sleeve. Perhaps with another decrease. I'm giving her a break until Tuesday when I'll get input from my SOW (Sisters Of the Wool) at knit night.

I have knit another skein on each sleeve to get to this point. There are a couple of little balls left from some part of the front and back that left a bit of yarn. We'll see if these little balls will be enough. I don't have yarn nerves, as you see, there is another bag (of 10 skeins). I bought 10 originally, thinking that would be enough but the pattern called for far more yardage and each skein is 40 grams instead of the traditional 50, so I ordered another bag. From an ebay seller with an excellent price for 10.

more later,
j

crystal cove has short sleeves?

Actually, no, crystal cove is not a short sleeve sweater. She is a long sleeve sweater whose sleeves are not finished. I knit one sleeve with the yarn left from finishing the front, as far as the yarn went. Then I knit the other sleeve with the yarn left from finishing the back, as far as that ball went. Well, this is not quite right.

There was a sleeve before these two, described above, that was trying to be knit in the round but it wasn't working out quite right, so it got frogged. Luckily there were stitch holders that were still there (and are still there, if you look at the picture closely) that double as lifelines. Some of my dear readers who are my Sisters Of the Wool may remember sleeve number 1. Well, one of the problems was that said sleeve intended to have 61 stitches, one of which was a p2tog of two shoulder stitches. Somehow said sleeve had 64 stitches. I know where one of the stitches came from [a late pickup] but the other two never explained themselves.

Also knitting said sleeve in the round was not working out. It started out on the sweater circ (size 9 Addi natura 24") but after wrestling a 24 inch needle round and round a sleeve a couple times, I tried a 16" size 9 Clover circ but a couple decreases later, that wasn't working out either. I didn't have size 9 dpns (but I do now) so I tried some 8's but they were 7 inchers and I kept feeling like the stitches were trying to escape. And the sleeve with all that sweater hanging off of it just wasn't turning round and round very well. The sweater took a break (about a week, not even a full fledged time-out). When it came back to the active knitting queue, I worked on a flat sleeve (sleeve 2 I guess) for an evening before I did the frogging thing on sleeve 1.

We're (Crystal Cove and I) much happier now,
j

the lost is found

The Cat Bordhi lace socks (#2 on my which socks post on 1/9) are found. When I went to pack up my laptop to bring home Friday afternoon, there they were hanging out in the laptop bag. I guess it's been a week or two since I brought it home?

Anyway here is her pic:


Watch for a post later tonight or tomorrow showing crystal cove pullover progress,
j

a scarf for dh

dh drooled over a hat I knitted in December with this yarn for my brother. I could tell he didn't believe me when I said the hat was not for him, but alas when he opened his packages, it wasn't there. But there was a big 50% coupon sale at Joann's in late December and two more balls of this yarn came home with me. It is Paton's Shetland Chunky in the High Plains varg colorway. dh says it's fall colors and he should know. (he grows maples).

I cast-on 200 stitches on a really long addi circ size 11. And knit until two skeins was close to running out. I knit from both skeins in turn because I didn't want any pooling/striping to get going then have an abrupt change mid-way through. Not that I would have minded some pooling, and there is some minor pooling. I just didn't want disrupted pooling. It probably would have been ok but ... I didn't want to risk it.

The scarf is about 8 feet long and 6 inches wide. I cast off with a sewn cast-off as I didn't want the cast-off to tighten up the edge. Not that anyone but me would have really cared. And that was a long long long piece of yarn on the needle at the start.

Here are some pics:



[dh wanted to keep the buckle in the pic. It's a custom I had made for his birthday a couple years ago based on a leaf from his newly patented Fire Dragon Shantung. ]

which socks pics

Yesterday's post has been edited to add pics. And blogger was not cooperating on the lots of pics so I had to look up my photobucket info, or should I say, lookup what photo service I signed up for. I found, and posed all of the sock projects, except for one, which is AWOL, but I have seen it within the last month. But while looking for the missing sock, I found another pair. So now there are 10.

Last night at knit night, we got to pass around and pat and ooh and aah over Grace's STR of the month club yarns and patterns. And some of my Sisters of the Wool are signed up. And I'm thinking about it. But with all these socks in process and all this sock yarn, I think I'll knit on these this year and maybe so the STR club next year. Maybe my knitting friend who doesn't like blue will get a blue kit and sell it to me.

The which sock comment voting poll is open.

more later,
j

Which socks

There are nine (yes, 9) pairs of socks on “the” list, in various stages of completion:

I’ve been pondering which one (or two) to bring to the active list. Here are some factors:

1) Rpm socks – the pattern and result are neat but it bores me and I have to concentrate a bit. Light (and levity/concentration factor) preclude knitting on these at knit night. Yarn is CTH, which will yield a good pair of socks.


2) Cat Bordhi lace socks – Sock 1 of this pair is on the leg and I have to concentrate on the lace chart. The end result will be thick socks with limited shoe choices.
[These socks are AWOL. I guess they are not eligible to be knit next.]

3) Brown wool gatto socks for dh – Sock 1 is to the heel but the needles have been pulled (who the heck did that without putting in a strand of yarn or some substitute needles) and the pattern is not well documented. It is based on a sweater chart with textured stitches and will require concentration to approximately duplicate what I have done on sock 1 on sock 2. I have no hope that they will be identical. Sock 2 is barely started and waits in the ribbing area. The first step is to retrieve and holder the loose stitches and give it a try-on (to dh).


4) Aqua cottony KP socks – This is a yarn from the knitpicks dancing line. From a time I thought I might like to knit cottony socks. And I believe the color was picked by dd who has a couple of pairs of handknit socks but declares that she rarely wears socks. And last time I saw her laundry (she lives on her own now), her socks showed signs of abuse that resulted in brown bottoms. These socks were knit in some manner which is not clear in my memory that resulted in a cuff bind-off but before I knew about EZ’s sewn bind-off. These socks are the reason I didn’t do toe-ups for a long while as the cuff bind-off is too tight and threatens to “pop” when easing the sock on. Anyways I remember trying to pick out the bind off and I hit a place where something is knotted and won’t come undone. I’m thinking I’ll clip back to the start of the ribbed cuff, unknit it there and reknit the cuff. But I’m not looking forward to doing this, which is why these socks have languished in time-out for so long when they are so close to being done. And I’d rather knit wool socks.


5) Cat Bordhi smile socks – These are from a workshop last spring and held so much promise. I remember trying on the model and recall that it fit. The purple and pink accent yarns came from Leslie, another workshop attendee. I call them smile socks because that’s what the accent colors look like to me. The represent one of Cat’s new sock architectures but as knit in this incarnation, by me, don’t work for me. I’m not sure if it’s my feet or my knitting or Cat’s instructions but it’s not worth it to me to try to make this work at this time. Get a good look. These are going to the frog pond.


6) Koigu socks – I do so like Koigu KPPPM (is that the right number of P’s?) sock yarn. I got this yarn last spring in Portland at a lys that had a beautiful wall of organized Koigu. This particular yarn has had a couple of false starts, and is currently a toe that seems too large. It just needs a bit of frogging and a re-cast-on (after figuring out the right number. I think four less that Sharon’s Koigu socks gifted at Christmas time.)


7) Birthday CTH socks – This is some pretty (and bright) Cherry Tree Hill that my dd got me for my birthday (last September). Its their fall foliage colorway (which has special meaning in our family) and will make nice socks. When it gets into the rotation. I have to figure out a pattern. Or it would be pretty in stockinette.


8) Mountain colors Bearfoot – This is some Mountain colors Bearfoot yarn and will be knit in stockinette likely, or close to it, because my experience is, any other pattern is obscured by the mohair bloom when the socks are washed a few times. But I do enjoy wearing them. And I will like another pair.


9) Brown mis-matched socks – These have been blogged earlier and they’ve been in time-out. And they still don’t match. And it still bugs me. What I think I should to, to make socks that please me, is knit socks in wide stripes with each strip alternating from the other end of the ball. However, this is much more complicated that what I was doing. And it makes ends to weave in. And may mean frogging what I’ve got. Grrr.


So dear readers, if you would like to weight in, the polls are open… Actually, there are no actual polls. You can “vote” in the comments. Or vote in a private email to me.

Pics to come tomorrow,
As it’s knit night, tonight,
j


Found another pair of socks in process. Now there are 10:
These are knit with two different Regia navy and other colors yarns. Striped together semi-randomly.


And for fun, the rest of the sock stash:

red scarf project

I've been knitting some red scarfs for the red scarf project. One is finished and one is in process:

The right one is finished except for blocking. It was knit of woolease, worsted weight, as a test to see if I liked knitting it. (It was ok for big box yarn, and was a good deal as I had a 50% coupon. ) It might have been done with one skein but seems a bit skimpy so I got another skein and added on until it seemed a good width (and met the project standards). The balance of the skein made a hat. It was knit in garter stitch, on a size 9 circ, with a cast on of 210. It was going to be 200 but there was some yarn tail left, so I used it. Cast-on and off with a bigger needle.

The scarf on the right is almost 4 feet long and will be done soon. Also knit with garter stitch, (CO 19) double stranded on size 11 short bamboo straights. The yarn is washable wool with a white viscose strand, from eBay. There was lots of it and it was a good deal, but didn't turn out to be something that I wanted for a sweater for myself. It became a donation sweater for Dulaan (many posts ago). And this scarf. And four balls went to a knit night Sister Of the Wool for another red scarf, also for the red scarf project. And four balls went to the daughter of a co-worker for another red scarf, also for the red scarf project. She crochets but we won't hold that against her. So soon the stash will be out of this red yarn. Alert the media.

I knit some at lunch time at work, and I'll take it to knit night as it is truly mindless, so I can keep up with all the knit (and not knit) talk. It should be done soon.

more later,

j

ribwarmer is done

Here she is, ends woven in, shoulder seams three needle binded-off, collar-ette sewn down. Shown with my new turtleneck. I took back some long sleeved tees that didn't fit quite right and got this at the after Christmas sales.

For my future reference, when doing a three needle bind-off of garter stitched knitting, I like the result best when the right side, of both sides to be joined, has the most recent bump row. That is the last row knitted should be a wrong side row. If this is not the case, the right side of the bind off has a wider gap at the "seam".

In other news, I thought I'd show you one of my Christmas presents:

As I was opening gifts, everytime I'd open a box about this size, dh would say, I'm going to get in trouble over this one. When I opened the camera, I suggested my daughter give him the "gift card" I had printed out on my home laser printer, that was a "buy your own" gift card for a new digital camera. He gestured toward the one I had just opened and said "I pick that one." Which is pretty much what I knew when I opened it. He's been wanting a new high mega-pixel camera with all the bells and whistles. I knew that but didn't want the burden of choosing what he would want. Not knowing that he had taken himself shopping before Christmas. I have convinced him over the years that I do not want any gifts with cords. Somehow I have to make some new gift parameters that include not getting me gifts that he wants.

more later,
j

ribwarmer

Here we have the ribwarmer vest, almost done. Basted at the shoulders for the final try-on. I just have to knit a few rows for the collar-ette. And three needle bindoff the shoulders and weave in a few ends. Very few ends as it was knit from a single skein of Cherry Tree Hill Twister in the water colorway. Thanks to Taya who went to the CTH sale and sold me this ball for a good price. It is good sproingy knitting.

This is based on Elizabeth Zimmerman's ribwarmer vest except knit with adaptations from my knitting friend Joy who had multiple versions from her knitting friends. It's knit in one piece from the top back from a provisional cast-on. Just one oddity I would change if I knit it again. It said to have an odd number of stitches and put that center back stitch on a holder. Which I did. And you can see it is still on a holder. I can't see that the pattern ever told me to do anything with it. There is a yarn tail there to weave in and I guess the tail will go through that stitch too.

Just for posterity, I left 3 stitches for the curved front corner. Well, I am sure of this fact as it applies to the second front that I knit. The first front was turned around Thanksgiving before the Christmas knitting consumed all my knitting time. And those things you are sure you will remember, well, I don't. So I should make better notes. Or notes, at all. Or blog it.

Also for posterity, it was knit on size 6 straights. Short Clovers. With a cast-on of 65. With short row shoulder shaping. And three stitches decreased in the collar area (on each side) during the front shoulder short rows.

Watch for a finito pic later today or tomorrow.

j

mission falls stash enhancement

Thanks to one of my Sisters Of the Wool, I heard about a 50% off all yarns at a local quilt shop. They have yarns too as a sideline but you're on your own when shopping for yarn as I have never once seen the one they call "the yarn lady". So I don't call them a lys.

I have been seeing the ad for the mission falls striped sweater in recent magazines. It calls to me. The book has that sweater plus a similarly striped cardigan (with minor color differences, and I thought the stripe pattern was different but it seems it is not). And I thought there was a similarly striped cap but that must be in another book. This is not a great leap for a hat knitter such as myself. And there's a fair isle sweater pattern that looks promising. Not that I know how to knit fair isle but it's on the list. Oh, yeah, you haven't seen that list. But I digress...

I had seen the mission falls striped sweater book at Yarns Ewenique during December but was not quite ready to buy it then. I did look at the required number of colors and skeins at that time, and admired and patted the mission falls wools (and cottons) but a bit of quick math kept me from buying a bag full. At full price, the yarn for the sweater is over $100.

After a few emails with my SOW and a phone call, it was established that the quilt shop did indeed have some mission falls wool though the number of colors was in question due to their new organize-by-colors scheme. So we find some clean jeans and run our hand through the hair and we're off. First a stop to buy the book at Yarns Ewenique (and some dpns). Then on to Cabbage Rose. It seems that they had over half of the colors I "need" and I bought a few extras of other colors "because you never know". All in all 20 balls at half price. Here you have it. Sorry, it's a little dark in the dining room but you get the idea.