soapquiltknit

Sales

2009-04-14T11:17:00.000-05:00

What if there was a store that was having a sale, and an item is priced at 3.00 and was 40 percent off? It would cost 1.80.
And then if there was anther sale, and an item is priced at 3.00 and was 60 percent off, it would cost 1.20.
But, what if you were in a hurry, and you weren’t watching your prices closely at the store. And then you were looking at the items in your bag, and the item was marked at 3.50. Well, then, it costs 1.40. Yes, it’s only pennies different but if you’re buying lots of them, it adds up.

The moral of the story is to look at the prices on the items before you pay your money. And if there are price changes you weren’t expecting, ask about them. Before you pay your money.

Happy Earth Day

2008-04-21T21:32:00.003-05:00

I know, I know, I've been missing in action.

I'm still alive. For a while I was spending too much time at work. Now, I'm spending too much time knitting and spinning. And on ravelry...

In honor of earth day, I'm publishing my first pattern. This is a bag I call my purple bag, but to go with all the green theme and because I usually make such bags green, it's my Green Purple Bag. I intended to put a pdf link here but I'm not exactly sure how to make that happen and I want to get this post up, so I'll place the pic and words here, and come back later and replace it with a pdf.

Green Purple Bag pattern

Yarn: for a big bag, as written below: about 200 yards of cotton or cotton/linen blend yarn
Needles: Size 13us 16 inch circular needle and size 7 (any type)

Handle: Using a provisional cast-on and smaller needle, CO 7 stiches. Knit garter stitch until strap is about 20 to 24 inches, stretched. My handle is 110 rows, 55 ridges. Leave stitches waiting on needle. (Note, when I make my next bag, I’m making the handle about 10 inches long)
Bag: Using larger needle, cast on 70 stitches and join for knitting in the round.
Round 1: Place marker to show the start of each round. K3 stitches then knit the next 7 stitches together with the strap stitches. (This is like a three needle bind off but don’t bind off. ) K28. Remove the provisional cast on and knit the next 7 stitches together with the starting stitches. K25
Round 2: Purl
Round 3: Knit
Round 4: * YO2, K1 Repeat from * until end of round
Round 5: * Drop first YO, knit second YO together with knit stitch. Repeat from * until end of round
Repeat round 4 and round 5 until bag is desired length or about 25 yards of yarn remain.

Decrease rounds:
Round 6: *YO2, K2tog Repeat from * until end of round
Round 7: Drop first YO, knit second YO together with knit stitch.
Repeat round 6 and round 7 one time.

Divide remaining stitches evenly between 2 needles. Do a 3 needle bind off.
Alternatively, cast off stitches and seam the bag bottom.

Note: for a smaller bag, use one ball of yarn, about 100 to 120 yards, and knit until you have about 25 yards left, then do the decrease rounds.
Another option would be to do fewer stitches around. The pattern stitch works for any stitch count.

© jdb 2008
Please use this pattern for personal use only. Do not knit items from this pattern, for sale, without permission.
Contact Jeri Bisel at soapquiltknit@gmail.com with questions or comments.

p.s. If anyone can share information about how to put a pdf on blogger, it would be great.

What was lost is found

2008-01-03T20:41:00.000-06:00

The maple man's hat has been lost. The hat I knit for him this year with yarn purchased specially for his hat. Not this and that, scraps and leftovers, like many hats this year have been knit with. This was Lorna's Laces worsted. Vacation trip yarn.

I was not pleased. (This displeasure was compounded by the fact that he needed a new hat because he felted last year's hat. This year's hat is superwash.)

He called me yesterday at the office. He was so happy. He had found his hat. When I got home, he presented me with the hat he found in the fire dragons (I should find the TM symbol, the Fire Dragon is a special shantung maple with red fall color that he patented last year [link]). The found hat was some green acrylic hat I had knit, probably quite a few years ago. I guess it has been out in a field of trees for maybe two or three years. I told him that that was not the hat he had lost. I tried to describe the red variegated color of the lost hat. He did not remember. I had to go find the little hat I had knit with the leftovers. Then, at least, he knew what he was looking for.

Today there was another hat find. The right hat. It was found in some bag behind the seat of his truck. He says it is warm. He says it is long enough to fold up. I said, "yes, you ask for extra length. Of course, it's warm, it's wool."

And it's a good thing. He was at risk of a fate no knitter's husband should face. Store bought hats.

2008 plans

2008-01-01T10:19:00.000-06:00

No resolutions, just plans...

I plan to knit some yarn and spin some fiber.

I just did a major lys sale buy. How could I help myself when a yarn store is moving and selling at crazy prices? So I plan to mostly knit from stash...

Some of my knitting plans:
finish knitty grace -- this project has languished in the ufo list for tooo long

finish the pink cotton cable-y sweater and find somebody who fits it

finish the malabrigo wrap -- this one was set aside in favor of knitting sweaters for the maple man and for mom... Sweater season is over, at least for others, and for the time being.

knit some socks -- Here are some socks that are on the needles:
handspun spunky grand opening color socks -- my first socks from my homespun. Both socks are knit to just up over the heel, with scrap yarns in place for afterthought heels. I have to spin more yarn. My spinning wheel has been neglected during sweater season. (see above)
pinky funny rib socks -- I think the pattern is from favorite socks (and I need to look it up.) I liked the way Joy's socks by this pattern looked better than I like knitting mine. Seems like I have to pay attention to the chart and it's not becoming imbedded in my brain.
ribby socks that started out as hedgerow socks but the yarn doesn't really work with the pattern... So they have a few chart repeats of hedgerow at the top and then k2p2k1p1 ribbing
I want to knit Eunny's endpaper mitts [link]. They've been in my ravelry queue for the longest.
I want to knit Rosemary's wendelins [link] and Brenda's Brother Amos [link].
Some sock patterns I've knit before that I may knit again are monkey and rpm, both from knitty, since mine are gone (gifted). And loksins [link].
I plan to knit socks for birthday gifts for my sis and sil. (I could keep this a secret but since I made them both do a major try on of my socks and "pick a sock yarn", I'm guessing they have some ideas...)
the cat lacey double stranded socks [pattern from a vogue knitting during 2006] will be up for evaluation, to frog or to finish, that is the question.

And I plan to figure out what else is hibernating. And needs to be finished. Or frogged...

I plan to spin some. I'm not going to say every day because that won't happen. But at least every other day. I've joined naspimomo [link] and the naspimomo ravelry group. [Gotta love ravelry. If you're a knitter and you're not on ravelry, head right over and sign up. I'll wait. I've entered most of my yarn stash and next comes cataloging projects. I plan to enter new projects as I work on them, and catch up past projects during the year.]

There's quite a bit of fiber accumulated during the last few months since I've started spinning. After I spin some down, and if I keep spinning and liking spinning, I plan to join Spunky's monthly fiber club [link].

Yarn sales

2007-12-26T07:23:00.000-06:00

Sometimes we struggle with ourselves. The little guy on one shoulder says "yarn sale, 50% off". The little guy on the other shoulder says "you have a LOT of yarn, what do you need more yarn for?"

Do you remember gas wars? Well, something similar is happening here with yarn. Today, in a couple of hours, a yarn sale starts at Shabby Sheep and it's 50% off all yarn. Later this week, at the Woolie Ewe it's 50% off everything. All week at Yarns Ewenique, it's 25% off everything. Last week, Jennings Street had 25% off everything. Then there is the big Webs sale.

Those little guys (the ones on my shoulder) are making lists. It is about 32 miles to Shabby Sheep and 50 miles to Plano. And there's not any other good reason, that I can think of, that I need to go to Dallas (or Plano). And gas is $3.00 per gallon. And I have lots of yarn. Lots and lots of yarn. And it will seriously cut into today's knitting time to go for a drive to Dallas. On the other hand, think about the yarn. We could do ooh, pretty, for 50% off. Rubbing elbows with lots of other knitters. Lots and lots of other knitters.

I think I will work on photographing my yarn and updating my ravelry stash.
And post a message on the Sisters of the Wool list, to see if anybody is going to Dallas. And I'll get dressed, in case anyone says yes.

it fits

2007-12-23T21:11:00.000-06:00

We did Christmas today with my family and I tried mom's sweater on her, complete with dangling needles and yarn ends and balls of yarn here and there.

And it fits! Well, what there is of it. It needs a few more rows on the front bands than I thought. And there is less of the sleeves left to knit than I thought. I'll need to do some figuring about the sleeve decreases but if I start now, they'll be pretty drastic. I may have to frog a few rows and start the decreases sooner... We'll see. I'm not up for the figuring this evening. Eight hours of driving (well, riding) takes it out of me.

On the way up there, I decided I needed to do some sock knitting. I was feeling uncertain about the sweater fit and there is sooo much of it now. There will not be seaming later, but the other side of that coin is that there is a lot of sweater and it's complicated to turn and knit back on a row.

Back to the sock, I decided I wanted to start knitting my latest handspun, the spunky eclectic grand opening color. I have spun enough, I think, for two sock feet and have the fiber batched up in queue to spin for the legs. It feels a little like cheating to start knitting before I'm done spinning. But, knit I did, and one foot is over half done. It's toe-up with a simple 3x1 rib on the upper foot area. It's doing a trekking style stripe. Pictures tomorrow if the weather cooperates.

A note about Christmas knitting... I decided to line the sari silk bag and take it as one of my gifts. We've been doing the dirty santa style exchange and last year there was a problem with clogs I intended for one nephew, who turned out to not be so interested in picking that gift... We this year, my niece brought her new bf (well, he's not new to her but it was his first time to meet the extended family.) Well, he opened the silk bag when some other gift was stolen from him... And no one stole it from him. He probably thinks we're weird. Or at least a gift exchange where a guy gets a knitted silk bag is weird. I'm hoping my niece likes the bag. Or she re-gifts it to someone who likes it... In any case, there will be no knitting for unknown recipients next year. Remind me next year, if my memory fades.

mom's sweater

2007-12-16T22:00:00.000-06:00

So now that Irish Moss is done, I'm concentrating on mom's sweater. Here she is as of earlier today:

And it's going pretty well but there is a problem on the front, I was going to say front right or front left but it occurred to me that I dont know whether it's left or right, because it's garter and I don't even know which side is the right side...

Anyway, on the pic above, it's on the side where the front panel is wider. The last three inches have some odd loose gauge.

They're almost ruffle-y. I have no explanation. I had no idea that I could knit with the same yarn and the same needles and get such a difference. When I noticed the looser rows, I let them rest and started working on the other side. I was kidding myself when I thought maybe the stitches would ease in? I'll be frogging a few inches.

Irish Moss is done!!

2007-12-16T20:30:00.001-06:00

As I guessed in the last post, I switched to a size 2 for the last 4 founds of the neckband knitting. And 16 rounds of neckband ribbing were plenty. To make sure, I knit in a circ for most of the stitches and dpns with only 10 or so stitches for the rest, and ask the maple man to try it on. I think he tired of the trying-on requests but indulged me.

Friday was our office Christmas party then we went to a graduation party for a good friend. There was minor imbibing so there was no serious knitting. On Saturday, December 15, I bound off the neck and woven in the last ends. And today, the maple man wore it to church.

Without further ado, I present Irish Moss:

And up close:

I wanted to take a picture on him but forgot to do it before he changed. A modeled picture will come later...

Just for the record,
Started August 4, finished December 15. That is 4 1/2 months... Not monogamous knitting but almost. And steady.
Yarn Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool Hazel colorway 13 skeins
(I bought 15, 2 were insurance in my mind, I guess I guessed well)
Needles: size 5 knitpicks options, plus size 3 for the ribbing and size 2 for the end of the neckband ribbing
Pattern: Alice Starmore's Irish Moss (Thanks to my local library for having Aran Knitting, and allowing my to check out and re-check...)
Modified to make the sweater longer and the sleeves longer and to add stitches, and cable chart repeats, based on my gauge. Actually, my first gauge swatch matched the pattern specs but felt "too airy". I feared it wouldn't be stable during wearing, and a bit too drapey for a manly cable sweater. As I knit them, the sweater front and back panels had 195 stitches in each row. I've thought about calculating total stitches but I don't think I want to know.

Christmas knitting

2007-12-13T21:46:00.000-06:00

It seems a while since I posted and posts may be spare over the next week or two. I'm trying to finish Irish Moss and I'm sooo close. Then I need to do some knitting on mom's sweater. To get it to a try-on point if I can't get it totally finished. Mom has already reminded me that her birthday is in February. So maybe she'll get most of a sweater for Christmas and the rest (a completed sweater) for her birthday.

I seamed Irish Moss like a mad-knitter last weekend. The life-line/chart markers really helped with the side seams and sleeve seams. The saddle seams were contrary as I was seaming an end of the shoulder to a side of the saddle. I ended up quartering each section and easing each to match. It was slow work but fitted together.

At knit night on Tuesday, I pulled out lots and lots of markers and life-lines. About a coffee cup full.

I picked up stitches for the neck band but had to make adjustments to compensate for the adjustments I had made in the overall stitch counts. I kept the integrated chart A cables in the ribbing. I tried to use a 32" circ (the same kp harmony size 3 I used for the front bottom ribbing) magic loop style, but it just wasn't long enough so I hunted up a set of dpns (wasn't in a mood to buy a different circ which has little chance for my future knitting). I am 12 rows in to a 20 row neck band but I am thinking 16 rows may be enough... We'll see when we get there. Also thinking about dropping down to a size 2 to pull in the ribbing more. We'll see what I think tomorrow.

In other news, knitpicks now has cat bordhi's new sock book for a nice discount. I ordered one for me and a few for my Sisters. On Saturday. And there was a box on my porch tonight. That is basically 4 days shipping during the holiday season. Good job Kelly and crew. Thanks. Except I lost an hour or two of knitting time tonight.

destashing --- what is that?

2007-12-02T16:52:00.000-06:00

An unusual phenomenon is happening here at chez maple. I mentioned last week [link] about listing some yarn for sale or trade on ravelry. It's going pretty well. About half of the yarns have "moved on". But this is not normal around here.

What usually happens is that yarn comes in, from one of my lys's or from the internet. [I puzzled over that phrasing but I guess that's how it seems, in my head.] Anyway, it usually hangs around on the dining room table for a time. Then it gets into a bag for knitting or goes into a bin, in the room I used to call the quilt room but there's been precious little quilting in the last coupla' years. And the stash is reduced only by yarn which becomes finished objects.

However, I've recently come to the opinion that there is some yarn that I have knit and don't want to knit again, or yarn that I bought and I just don't want to knit. And it was time to move it on. Hence the ravelry offerings.

The maple man is oblivious to most of the yarn. And to the knitting. Except for the knitting on his sweater which he considers honorable knitting of the highest order. But I digress.

I mentioned to him this afternoon about mailing out some yarn. He asked if I had plenty of packing tape. (I had him hunting for tape last week. We didn't find it. I bought more and now it will turn up...) I told him I was destashing some. He gave me a puzzled look. He said, "What do you mean? Hiding yarn at someone else's house?" I said, yeah, kind of...

December 1 status

2007-12-01T10:36:00.000-06:00

I did so want to have a finished Irish Moss to report for December 1. But if you've read my recent post I had to frog back the neckline shaping and knit another inch. But stay tuned for updates leading to a completion. Soon. Surely...

finished during November 2007
5 hats
no socks
The sock total for 2007 remains 14 pairs

For December knitting, I plan to complete Irish Moss.
I'd like to complete Mom's sweater so I don't have to gift her an incomplete sweater then take it back to knit...
Maybe more Christmas gift hats.
Then back to some moi knitting.

My spreadsheet of projects has been neglected recently. I'll try to get it updated for a complete report at the end of the year. I may use ravelry to track projects in '08. I do some ravelry but have to limit myself so it doesn't become a black hole for time when I could have been knitting or spinning. I'm patternwhisperer on ravelry if you want to be my friend.

2 saddles

2007-11-29T19:34:00.000-06:00

The Irish Moss sleeves each have a cable-y saddle. (The maple man thinks of them as officer's stripes.) The front has been frogged back to before the shoulder shaping. I'm quite pleased that I put in a lifeline before starting the shaping.

I'm off to knit another inch or so of cables then more shoulder shaping. And watch the cowboy game. ;-)

Yarn for sale or trade

2007-11-26T13:29:00.001-06:00

yarn_for_sale 076
Originally uploaded by soapquiltknit

I've just loaded some yarns onto my stash for sale or trade page. If you're not on ravelry and you're interested in some yarn, let me know what you're looking for. I have Noro and sock yarn and recycled silk and sock yarn (KP sock garden geranium, and tap dancing) and wool gatto. Also KP Sierra and spinnaker. And some Fire Ant Ranch singles.

Here is a link:
http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/iso-and-destashing/42458/1-25

All is well

2007-11-25T22:18:00.000-06:00

Still adjusting to the new computer... [Scoll way down for knitting content.]

itunes is ticking me off. Anybody know of another program to use with my ipod to keep up with podcasts and load a bit of music from CDs?

The maple man has to make a pdf to send in related to the rhodie convention next year in Tulsa. I did not move over his make-a-pdf shareware. Worse than that, I got rid of it (on the old computer, I asked first "are you going to make any more pdf's) because the name of the program looked suspiciously like some software known to cause problems with some thumbdrive software. Who knew they were so complicated?

But I digress... So we had to re-download, and re-install primo pdf. And he made a pdf yesterday. But he didn't send it off. He wanted to think about it. Today he couldn't find it. So he made a new one and sent it off. This evening I'm knitting. He starts asking questions about the program files directory. What?? He wants to know where the program files directory is. He thinks his lost pdf is in there. What?? He will not be dissuaded. I have to put down the knitting and find him the program files. First I had to tell Vista to quit hiding system files and folders. Don't remember what all I clicked but about a half hour later, we found all the program files and his lost pdf's (one from yesterday and one from today that he had not mentioned). Then he announced that all is well with the world.

I was ok with that until I noticed the time and the fact that I had missed the first part of Desperate Housewives...

In other all-is-well news, the irish moss is coming along nicely. And it fits. Well, it will with minor adjustment. I really really needed to try it on the maple man before more knitting. The front and back and sleeves were knitted. All was. complete save the saddle shoulders and the neckline ribbing.

I basted the side seams and the sleeve seams and basted the sleeves to the body parts. But what about those missing shoulders? I could not ask him to put it on and try to hold it up. So I used a t-shirt.

I could have cut it up to have just the shoulders and neck ribbing but there's no need. And it fits. He commented right away that the sleeves are just right. Looked a bit long to me but poor guy's probably never had sleeves too long. And the length will take up a smidge with elbow bend wrinkles. The sweater front and back do need to be an inch or so longer. I've already blocked in some length to account for the bloom of the wool/silk blend. I have lifelines holding the back stitches before the shoulder bind-off. And lifelines holding the front stitches before I knit the shoulder shaping.

So I'm knitting saddles. And preparing to knit an inch or so more body. And I'm ready to be done with cables for a while.

On the day after Thanksgiving...

2007-11-23T23:11:00.000-06:00

I usually go shopping. I didn't do the mall. And didn't go for the 4 a.m. openings or the 5 a.m. openings. But I did do Office Depot. At 5:45 a.m. And got a new laptop. And it is a pain in the patooey to move over files. Especially the maple man's collection of pictures. Many of which are more than 4 meg each... Good thing I also got a big external hard drive. And it's a good thing, this struggling computer did not give up the ghost before I finally got around to upgrading. So far, vista is fine. And plenty of memory is good. Now about those rebate forms...

Then to Simpatico [link] for the sale. I got LOTS of fiber. A bag full of mostly red (with some black and white) that is a mill end roving from brown sheep. Probably wool with a low percent of mohair. Some lady from California was there last week and bought all the black and brown and all of the punta top. Also I got a couple of ounces of colored cotton for when I feel up to trying cotton. And a bit of yarn. Who could resist hempathy for 70% off? Before you rush right up there, I got the last of it. But there ~~are~~ were some good deals left, when I left. I think the sale is still on tomorrow.

Thanksgiving 1

2007-11-22T10:05:00.000-06:00

I am losing it. Not sure how this happened. I told the maple man that he may need to check me in to the funny farm. I know how to make pies. I became the official pie maker in my family, when I was 13 or 14, in self-defense. My mom made really bad pie crust. She tried. Really she did. It just never came out flaky and tender. Sometimes tough. Sometimes doughy. Sometimes burned. But I digress...

Today is Thanksgiving. We must have pie. Pecan pie. Some of you might say pumpkin pie but around here, if there is one pie that is mandatory, it is pecan. Last night, I didn't have bell practice so I went to an extra knit night. The maple man thought the knitters should be home making pies or thawing turkeys but I had different ideas.

So, I'm making pie this morning. I make crust from a recipe in my head. Roughly, per crust, 1 cup flour, 1/3 cup crisco, some salt, and water to moisten, with minimal mixing. [The trick is to measure the crisco by displacement in ice water. Now you know all my secrets...]

Sooo I commence to make the crust. I measure 2/3 cup of Crisco. 2 cups of flour (can you see where we're going with this?) Mix the crust. Divide in half and roll out (with the one-handled rolling pin I inherited when my mom moved in with my brother... The story goes that Grandma Shorty broke off the other handle on grandpa's head.) I put the crust in the pie pan. And then I started to wonder what I was thinking. A pecan pie is a one-crust pie. What is that other crust for???

The pie is in the oven. The other crust is in the freezer.

saving nine contest

2007-11-22T10:01:00.000-06:00

Rush on over to Nichole D.'s blog, saving-nine [link]. (Scroll down to the November 9 post. I couldn't figure out how to link directly. So sorry.)

She's having a contest to promote her cute knitting needle endcap earrings. Entries close today, 11/23, so hurry on over and comment to enter.

let the holidays begin...

2007-11-21T07:11:00.000-06:00

I'm off work today and next Monday, plus the holidays, so we're having a nice long weekend. There will be cooking tomorrow but I've convinced the maple man we don't need to cook a turkey for the two of us. I think we've decided on butterfly pork chops with some of the traditional side dishes. Watch this space for a list. We have different favorites so it will be interesting to see how many we end up with in our effort to not get carried away.

But, and you might have guessed this, a long weekend means lots of knitting time. Last night at knit night, I finished knitting the last rows on the back of Irish Moss. Now there is the binding off, but we'll have no normal binding off for Alice. In the cables, there are decreases during the bind off so I have to pay some attention. I considered briefly doing a three needle bind off for the shoulders, and then I remembered the saddles (which I still need to knit. Forget about it, I said to myself, and follow the bind off instructions.

The maple man asked this morning what I was going to be knitting. I told him I was about ready for the bind off. Then I'll do some blocking and basting-together to make sure this thing is going to fit. Not sure how I'd make adjustments but, ummm, there will be no frogging and reknitting. In the back of my mind, I am thinking about my brother who is a smidge smaller than the maple man, tall, but not quite as tall, and no dun-laps (def. when your belly done lapped over your belt).

Back to the knitting plans... I said the ribbing would be knitted soon. He says "I've been meaning to talk to you about that". I'm thinking, this is all I need, suggestions from ~~the peanut gallery~~ a non-knitter. He says "How much ribbing am I getting? 1/2 inch, 1 inch?" I said about an inch or a little more. I don't have any idea how much Alice has in mind but I figure it's up to me. We need enough ribbing to make the neckline stable and look good. I guess I'll be considering the suggestions of the maple man and Alice.

Then he explained about the glasses. He says he likes to take his sweater off with his glasses on. The things you learn about a man after all these years.

into the toilet...

2007-11-19T11:41:00.000-06:00

Podcaster Kelley Petkun from knitpicks has gone over the deep end recently with an extensive review of a book about toilet paper covers.

Umm, I grew up in a house with a crocheted toilet paper cover. It was yellow, I think. I don't recall that we used the toilet paper in the cover. It was for decoration. This (the making of toilet paper covers) would be more complicated these days because of the downsizing of the regular size toilet paper roll, and the introduction of double rolls and triple rolls. And whatever other new size rolls they are making this week. It seems we have lost our standards.

I'm not linking to the book. If you are interested, I'm sure you can google it. Or listen to the podcast.

a shoulder

2007-11-18T19:06:00.000-06:00

Irish Moss has a shoulder:

Well, almost two shoulders. I'm off to finish knitting shoulder 2, but first a close-up of cable-y goodness:

poke berry yarn update

2007-11-14T20:25:00.001-06:00

poke plyed111307 002
Originally uploaded by soapquiltknit

I have plyed the darker yarn from the first week's poke berries with the lighter yarn from the second week's poke berries. It's pretty and I think it will knit up tweedy. But, and I guess I shouldn't be surprised, it's chunky. Two singles, that both looked like fingering or light fingering, ply together to make chunky. It's not over-plyed so that is progress. I looks a tad under-plyed to my untrained eye but hangs without twisting as pretty as you please. I understand that means it's balanced.

I mixed together the saved poke berry juice from both batches (there were no mold or off-scents). There were about three pints total and stewed up (that's a techical term) another couple of yards of roving. One yard of targhee, marked with a green thread, and one yard of rambouillet. I wanted to test whether it was likely the roving source that was responsible for the color difference. It wasn't. Both rovings are very similar in color. So the difference is likely due the the berry ripeness difference between week 1 and week 2 or some processing difference. After the rovings came out, there was still plenty of juice so I dyed some of my early spun yarn (ok, all my spun yarns are early, as I've just been spinning for a couple of months...)

I haven't decided what all this yarn in various shades of poke berries wants to be. Nominations are open.

p.s. there's still a pint and a half
Are you asking yourself, will this saga every end?

p.p.s. I've read that carrot tops make a nice green. I've never had a lot of gardening success with carrots. Maybe it's time for another try?

a sweater for dad

2007-11-13T10:24:00.000-06:00

Today’s knitting daily post comes from guest contributor, Amy Clarke Moore, editor of Spin-Off magazine.
Amy tells about the sweater she’s been working on for her dad since 1996. She knits on it from November to February. His birthday is in February and when it’s not done in time for his birthday, she puts it away until the next dad-sweater-knitting-season.

I’m not sure how old Amy is or how old her dad is. But I’m guessing Amy is grown, since she has a position as editor of a spinning magazine, and her dad is, what word should I use, mature.

Life is fleeting. We never know when our number will be called. I lost my dad, suddenly, in 1992, when he was 65. I think he knew, because before he passed, he made the “tour” and visited each of his kids and their families. And I wasn’t a knitter then, but if I had been, I would have wanted him to have his sweater.

Amy, finish the sweater.

knit stamps

2007-11-13T10:20:00.000-06:00

Have you seen this year's Christmas stamps from the USPS?

This picture is from last year. The stamps a co-worker showed me this morning say 41.

hats for 3 year olds

2007-11-12T18:28:00.000-06:00

Here are some hats I've been knitting:

The pink hat is for my cousin's granddaughter Anna Mae. It is knit with two strands of custom dyed not-so-light yarn from Socks that Fit [etsy link]
I think it will be just right for a 3 year old girly girl who likes pink. It reminds me of pepto-bismol or Barbie playhouse pink. My cast-on was 80 and the needle was a kp 16 inch circ size 5us. The pattern is my own and will be published here soon.

The red hat is for the 3 year old grandson of one of the maple man's suppliers. Carl Munn is the developer of the popular and hard-to-find Moonrise maple. The colors of the hat are designed to capture the fall colors of Japanese maples.
This one is Acer Japonicum Oisami.

Same pattern as above except the cast-on was 84. Same size 5 kp 16 inch circ. The yarn is one strand of Silja red and one strand of Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn in the fall foliage colorway.

dog time

2007-11-11T17:33:00.000-06:00

We changed the clocks a week ago. It's time to "fall back" but on my first effort to reset the microwave clock, I went a hour the wrong way. The maple man understood the time change more clearly than I did and I reset again. I've only been resetting twice a year for mumble mumble many years but I guess I was confused.

About 4:00 last Sunday afternoon last week, the dog's were acting hungry earlier than the time they usually eat. The maple man understood that they don't go by clocks and their tummies were telling them it was time for dinner. I also declared that my tummy said it was time for dinner.

All week, I've been waking up early. Before the time on the clock when I usually get up. And I've been getting yawn-y and sleepy earlier than my usual bedtime.
Add to this time confusion that things have been crazy at work and I've been staying later than usual.

And one more problem with time changes, it's dark when I get home from work, or at least the good light is gone. Which makes problems for blog pictures... I think I took some at the farm yesterday but they're still in the camera... Maybe later?
My tummy says it's time for dinner.

wayback time machine

2007-11-11T17:20:00.000-06:00

There's a contest you need to hurry up and enter. Entries close at mid-night tonight (not sure what time zone). Kitkatknit wants you to turn back your wayback time machine and tell her (in the comments) and on your blog what you were knitting this time last year.

My wayback machine is not working very well. Last year in November, I was a bad bad blogger and did not post. From what I remember, I was knitting feverishly on tooo many Christmas presents, mostly clogs (love love FTs patt) and hats. Can I still be in the contest?

she-knits

2007-11-08T22:04:00.000-06:00

Yea!! A new she-knits podcast is downloading. Just when I was all out of new podcasts.

And my ravelry t-shirt came in the mail today. And we may have some weather in the 80's this weekend so I guess it's t-shirt weather again.

distraction

2007-11-06T08:00:00.000-06:00

There is knitting, nightly, on the Irish Moss. But it doesn't make for much blog fodder as it looks pretty much the same day to day.

So I'll distract you with a pretty picture.

I think he's smiling.

poke spinning update

2007-11-05T07:45:00.000-06:00

I don't think I've showed you my spinning recently. I've been spinning the roving I dyed with pokeberries.

Clock-wise from the top:
batch 2 roving (targhee)
batch 2 roving pre-drafted
batch 2 single on the spindle
batch 1 single on the spindle (rambouillet)

The roving that I dyed, the first weekend that I picked poke berries, is what I'm calling batch 1. There are about 46 grams of single. I would call the color magenta and in two weeks, I've noticed no fading.

The roving I dyed last weekend, started out lighter in color than the first batch. It's more of a rose-y red. Could be because I dyed more roving and yarn in the pot. The "dye" did not exhaust, but maybe natural "dye" doesn't exhaust? Could be because the berries were at a different stage. Could be because the rovings are from different sources. The batch 1 roving is from Heritage Arts from the bulk white bump. Sue said it is likely rambouillet. The batch 2 roving is targhee from Woodland Woolworks.

I plan to ply the two together but they haven't told me what they want to be. I'm still at the stage of being surprised what weight the yarn will be after it's plied and finished. I'm guessing worsted. Stay turned and we'll see.

And here is the pre-drafted roving up close:

Pretty? On my monitor the color is close, maybe a little lighter than in person. When spun, it is darker and richer in color.

I also over-dyed this sock yarn in batch 2. It from the custom-dyed yarn we [my Sisters of the Wool] got through Grace's co-op. The yarn is a wool bamboo blend. The little skein shows the original red-purple. It's now red-darker.

library books

2007-11-04T06:27:00.000-06:00

I really enjoy library books. Recently most of my choices have been of the knitting and spinning persuasion. I get to read newer books before I make a buy decision, and out-of-print books that are not available except at astronomical prices and also the oldie-goodies. My local library has a program that allows me to have a library card also from the close-by larger library systems so I can check out their books too. I can also borrow from farther-away larger library systems but I'm not so interested in driving an hour or two to a library. In any case...

I currently have these books checked out:

This is an excellent book. Currently out of print but I understand it's being re-published. I'll be one of the first in line. Even though she expresses a preference for throwing over continental, and seaming over in-the-round. And she doesn't call my favorite long tail cast-on by the name we know and love, long tail cast-on.

An excellent resource for natural dyeing. Also out of print but there are some reasonably priced copies for sale used. I'll be adding this one to my personal library.

Focused on sweater patterns knit from handspun. A bit too cookbook-y for me, so I'll just enjoy the library's copy for a couple of weeks.

12,000

2007-11-03T20:23:00.000-05:00

Yea!! Blog hits have passed 12,000. To all of my readers, thanks for reading me.

Hopefully, Irish Moss will be ~~over~~ complete soon. Then blog content and variety should hopefully improve.

Attention: podcasters

2007-11-03T16:27:00.000-05:00

Turn off the phone or at least turn off the ringer.
If you pause your podcast to answer the phone,
we don't need to know it.

Now back to your regularly scheduled knitting...

more irish moss

2007-11-03T10:14:00.000-05:00

I think this is the front. I soaked and blocked a sleeve and it grew in length two inches (about 10%) so if the other panel is the front, I think it will may be too long (although I don't think a man who is 6'4" has ever had a too long sweater), so it will be the back and this the front.

I'm still on ball 11. 19 grams are left. Which could be knit up by early next week. If I knit more and spin less...

book delivery

2007-11-02T18:20:00.000-05:00

The post office and UPS were good to me today:

From amazon:

Seems more about dyeing and spinning than socks.

Mentioned on the knitpicks podcast last week, written in the same vein as EZ
.

And an out-of-print spinning book from ebay (thanks for the heads-up Judi, it looks like it will be a goody, and for much less than Amazon used book sellers):

I'm looking forward to reading my new books, and I'm really tired tonight as I spent the day working on a Habitat house, so this may cut into tonight's knitting time.

Interweave

2007-11-02T00:01:00.000-05:00

I've been watching the porch for books. I have two on order from Amazon and an out-of-print spinning book from a slooow shipping ebay seller. Imagine my surprise when I found the Winter 2007 issue of IK in my mailbox. The website said it was due on newstands on November 13 and I find it in my mailbox on November 1. Good job Eunny.

I haven't taken time to give it a thorough read but none of the patterns have jumped onto my "must do" list. So far. Looks like some nice articles on sleeve caps and alpaca.

November 1 status

2007-11-01T18:16:00.000-05:00

Another status report that was quick to post and will be quick to read. Another month with not so many finished objects to blog about. Another month still slogging along with the Irish Moss sweater.

finished during October 2007
Scott’s hat
most of the back of a sweater (Irish Moss for dh)
some of mom’s sweater
no socks
So the sock total for 2007 is still 14 pairs

For November knitting, I plan to continue to focus on Irish Moss.
Mom's sweater will be alternate knitting for times when I need to knit mindless.
There’s also a pink hat for a great niece. Think pepto-bismol.

Tis the season

2007-10-31T18:02:00.000-05:00

of the pumpkin.

The maple man grew a few this year in the spaces between the rows of maples.
Here is a pic of one under an Acer Palmatum Mikawa Yatsabusa:

Scott's hat

2007-10-31T07:54:00.000-05:00

It turned off cold here over the last week or so. In these parts, we call it cold when lows are in the 40's. There's a young guy named Scott who's been helping out at the maple farm. I sent this hat to the farm and I hear that Scott likes it. And I hear that he get's lots of compliments when he wears it around.

It is knit with three strands held together throughout, generally, except when there are two. Generally worsted, except when there were lighter or heavier yarns in the bag. Mostly stockinette with a couple rows of seed stitch at the bottom to prevent curling. I think the needle was a size 9us 16" circ. I don't remember the cast-on number but I'll borrow it back some Saturday and count.

I made this hat during the summer, to stash bust some odds and ends, without an intended recipient. I'm happy it has a head to warm.

for a sister

2007-10-30T16:09:00.001-05:00

You may have heard that there is some sockhop available at Crown Mountain. [http://www.crownmountainfarms.com/html/sockhop.html ] If you hurry, there was still some left when last I checked.

One of my sisters of the wool really wanted some. This is how a recent group email exchange went"

Sister 1: I got my Sock Hop fix! I purchased "Do You Believe in Magic", "Crazy Love", "Satisfaction", and "Let's Hang On". I think I made out like a bandit! I will certainly bring my newly acquired stash to show and tell! Does anyone have any socks they've knitted up in this yarn?

Sister 2: Oh my gosh, you really scored, didn't you?? The socks I wore last week were in Sock Hop, Wild Thing. I've worn them about five times and people always notice them. They seem to be holding up well. I can bring them tonight (dirty).

Sister 1: I promise to hold them at arm's length whilst admiring them.

Oh, the things we do for each other...

more pokeberries

2007-10-29T21:04:00.000-05:00

I've been picking more pokeberries. I think the season is over but I got another half gallon of berries.

Here is one of the plants, pre-picked:

A self portrait of my hand mid-pick:

The harvest, berries and seeds:

And a follow-up, this is some of the yarn I've been spinning:

I don't know how the color looks on your moniter but it's kind of a bright cranberry-y color.

ball 10

2007-10-27T08:48:00.000-05:00

I finished knitting ball 10 on Thursday night and started ball 11. When I wound up the yarn cake that is ball 11, I thought to myself, maybe I should just wind one skein. Maybe this is the last one?

Well, I'm maybe halfway up the front of the sweater. And the other front/back has 4 balls (three are knitted in, the fourth is knitted some and waiting for length determinations), so I'm guessing, and feel pretty sure, that I will need to use ball 12. :-(

I will edit this post later today, after I have a chance to take pics with good light, to add what has become the obligatory weekly status-of-the-sweater picture.

eta the promised pic:

What socks are you wearing?

2007-10-27T08:27:00.000-05:00

The question of "What socks are you wearing?" came up yesterday on the Sister's group (Sisters Of the Wool otherwise known as SOWs, my knit night group). It sparked a flurry of responses as we are enthusiastic sock knitters but live in north Texas where it is not wool sock season in the summer. Now that temperatures are cooling off with day time temperatures in the 70's and 60's and night time temps in the 40's, it's handknit sock season here.

For me, this week, it was the mountain colors basket rib socks on Monday, stockinette STR fire on the mountain Tuesday, bright charcoal jitterbug baudelaires on Wednesday, raisen nature's palette loksins Thursday, and the fleece artist not-so-matchy brown socks Friday. I guess we'll need a sock washing day this weekend.

I'd love to hear what socks you're wearing, in the comments. If you have sock making questions, I'd be glad to try to help.

I wanted to show you this

2007-10-24T19:32:00.000-05:00

The maple man has a much more complicated camera than I do. He's not a point and click kind of guy. Sometimes he's taking pictures for his website and sometimes he's taking pictures. I think sometimes he's playing with his camera. He learned how to change the background on the moniter and now I find all sorts of interesting pictures when I turn on the computer.

It's not knitting but I really like this picture:

Irish Moss week 11

2007-10-22T19:00:00.000-05:00

I've been knitting on the maple man's Irish moss for 11 weeks. I'm mid-way through ball 10:

I'm really getting tired of it but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and and trying to stick with it. I can glance at a chart and chant to myself front, back, back, then my head knows that front, front, back comes next. The "purl back" rows go quicker. Well, they're not really purl backs, but I can generally read the knitting and know what to knit without looking at the charts much. And rows 1 and 9 have fewer cables so they go pretty quickly too.

It slows me down when I find odd stitches that need to be switched from knits to purls or vice-versa. And it slows me down when I have to stop and pick out vm (vegetative matter, maybe it's hay?) Which sometimes happens several times per row. And sometimes doesn't happen for several rows.

In any case, there is progress. The maple man has a trip to Oregon planned for a couple of weeks from now. The sweater won't likely be ready. However, his birthday is in mid-November and I'm guessing it may be ready by then. If not, maybe it's a Christmas sweater?

too late in the season for poke salad

2007-10-21T19:49:00.000-05:00

I've been picking poke berries. [These are not the same berries because the ones I picked are picked.] I meant to take pictures but the next thing I knew my hand was covered with red drippy sticky juice. That would have been a good picture too .

I picked berries into the paper sack that our bbq sandwiches came in. It got a little soggy, well, a lot soggy so I let it rest in a plant pot and cut down a gallon water jug for more pickings. I'm guessing I ended up with a little over a gallon of berries total. Then I cooked them up with vinegar as in The Joy of Spinning by Marilyn Kluger (checked out from the library recently). For a couple of hours. It didn't smell to great, but I'm not sure whether it was the berries or the vinegar.

We stopped at Dollar Tree after church to pick up a $1.00 colander. I use my soap pans for dyeing so I'm stocked up in that respect but I didn't want to use my regular colander or my jelly bag.

So then I dyed some roving and yarn. A test really but I think it turned out well:

The yarn is some leftover Regia sock yarn, formerly blues and grays, and some kp bare yarn.

The fiber is spinning up nicely. It felted just a touch but with some pre-drafting to loosen it up, it's fine.

The stems look interesting too. I wonder whether they would dye fiber?

Ball 9

2007-10-16T17:20:00.000-05:00

Ball 9 is gone. Tonight is knit night and I have learned that cable-y charted patterns are not so good for knitting and talking and having time to ooh and aah and fondle yarn-y show and tell's so I'll take mom's sweater and knit some garter.

I think I'll knit the rest of the skein I used for swatching for ball 10. It's 39 grams so maybe I'll finish it faster?

sweater progress

2007-10-14T18:06:00.000-05:00

Updated sweater pics:

Irish Moss for the maple man:

and up close:

I keep knitting and I keep looking at the ball of yarn (ball 9). It doesn't seem to want to run out. It goes on and on. Lots of yardage per ball is overrated.

And mom's sweater:

The white bastey stitches show where the balls run out. There's no real point to it but it helps me see how long a ball is lasting.

There is a provisional cast on (96) at the beginning which is somewhere on the back of the sweater. Doesn't matter at this point, where on the back, as I intend to unzip the provis. and knit on, hopefully in a manner that will be transparent to the user (using a phrase I hear often). The back of sleeve stitches (40) are on hold. Then I decreased 4 more (k2tog) during the next 8 rows two stitches in from the edge. After a few plain rows (I should count), I increased 4 over the next 8 rows (used a m1 bar increase... I tried a lifted increase and it didn't look right in garter). The total underarm section is about 4 and a half inches. There is a lifeline at the end of the underarm rows in case I need to get back to that point easily. Then I added back the front of sleeve stitches with another provisional cast on (40). If it turns out that the armhole is not deep enough (I'm pretty sure it is), there will be a shoulder saddle.

Yes, I'm kind of a provisional cast-on nut. The maple man has heard me talk about them and seen them in projects enough that he feels left out because he has no provisional cast ons (or is it casts on? what is the plural of cast on?) in his sweater. I told him he could have a provisional cast on in his next sweater.

more yarn to show

2007-10-08T18:11:00.000-05:00

We have more plied yarn:

There are about 34 yards (22 grams) of the multi-colored yarn and about 43 yards (36 grams) of the almost white.

The multi-colored is from this roving from my dye test:

And is shown on the second bobbin:

The almost white is a plying together of the first bobbin above (corriedale) and the third bobbin (targhee).

I'm a novice spinner, but I would say that the yarn is variably spun with overspun and underspun sections, and perhaps (no, probably) is overplied. I do need to figure out how much twist is right and how much ply twist makes it balanced. But it's "yarn" and the knitter in me wants to knit it. I think it wants to be bubby from knitty [link].

progress

2007-10-07T17:35:00.000-05:00

There is progress on Irish Moss for the maple man:

I knit a bit on ball 8 on the front, and noticed how long the sweater front seemed. I knit another row or two then matched it up to the "model" sweater. It is an long as the front, up to the neckline ribbing. The maple man thinks it could be an inch or so longer, but it's on hold pending bloom analysis.

I still have the swatches but I don't know the exact swatch size prior to swimming. So my idea is that since I have two similarly sized sleeves, I will swim and block one and see what I gain in size, then I'll know what to expect from the front/back. Proportionally, of course. The sleeves are still on holder cables waiting for the saddles to be knit. Which are waiting for the basted-test-try-on.

In the meantime, I've cast-on with ball 9 and made my way through 23 rows of ribbing, a row of complicated increases, and most of the first chart set. I knit the ribbing with my new knitpicks harmony circ (size 3us) [link]. The options style only goes down to size 4. The harmony needle made for much more enjoyable knitting than the first rib which was knitted with a size 3 almost-antique plastic straight. The main body of the sweater is being knit on size 5 kp options (the original nickel plated ones).

And there is progress on Mom's sweater:

Back to my knitting...

a sweater for mom

2007-10-02T17:22:00.000-05:00

I talk to my mom every Sunday. And sometimes other days, but every Sunday. For the last few weeks, I've been telling her about the sweater I'm knitting for maple man. And she says, when are you knitting a sweater for me?

Sometimes she tells me about how cold it is there.

Sometimes she tells me about Elsie's pretty sweater.

She hints shamelessly.

So mom is getting a sweater. Here is the start:

It's garter and knitted side to side. Probably. Though it's not too late to change. It's my own design inspired and influenced by a number of patterns I've been reading lately. None quite right, so I'm making it up. Somewhat as I go along. I need an easy to knit project for when I can't concentrate on cables. I'm still focused on Irish Moss, but sometimes I just can't read charts and count and pay full attention.

The yarn is Gedifra:

from Elann. There was an email that I clicked on. There was a bag sale on Gedifra Living, at something like 70% off. It's a superwash wool and rated at 4 stitches per inch. Not so chunky/bulky but definitely faster, easier knitting than Irish Moss (size 5 needles and cables). I was worried, buying yarn I'd never seen or touched on the net. I was afraid it would be scratchy. But it's not. It's soft, and softly spun so I have to be sure I don't split it as I knit but it seems to be workable.

I got spot on ball-band gauge, 4 stitches per inch, on size 8us and I like the texture of the knitted fabric. It has some stretch and give but doesn't feel like it will go saggy baggy. The swatch went in the washer and came out a titch bigger than when it went in but after drying flat went back to it's original size. I'll try it in the dryer sometime for a further test.

Oh, almost forgot to mention. I got two bags. Mom's an xl or an xxl.

National Spinning and Weaving Week

2007-10-01T17:26:00.000-05:00

To commemorate National Spinning and Weaving Week [Oct 1-7, 2007], here is a picture of my new Lendrum DT:

And my first spun and plied yarn:

And after soaking and skeining:

Many thanks to the lendrumspinners yahoo group for helping me get my plyer drive band installed.

October 1 status

2007-10-01T17:18:00.000-05:00

Another status report I was tempted to skip. Another month with not so many finished objects to blog about. Still slogging along with the Irish Moss sweater.

finished during September 2007
baby booties
sari silk bag
most of the front of a sweater (Irish Moss for dh)
no socks
So the sock total for 2007 is still 14 pairs

2007 Knitting status 10/1/07
Same as last month plus
sweater for mom
For the record the wip/ufo total is 8, down from 9.

For October knitting, I plan to continue to focus on Irish Moss.
Mom's sweater will be alternate knitting for times when I need to knit mindless.

Louis Stout

2007-09-30T19:08:00.000-05:00

Last Christmas I hinted shamelessly about wanting a swift made my one of my Sister's (of the Wool) husband:

Louie made very nice swifts and signed them proudly:

I saw Louie a couple of weeks ago in the hospital. He was there for what was expected to be three days. He didn't get to go home. We'll miss you Louie.

Irish Moss week 8 ball 8

2007-09-30T18:37:00.000-05:00

That is, we're 8 weeks in and ball 8 is started.

Witness:

The front is getting longer and if the maple man were not 6'4", his sweater front would be almost done...

Sari Silk bag +

2007-09-29T15:03:00.000-05:00

A finished project for September. This sari silk bag has been on my UFO list all year. Ever since I’ve been tracking UFOs. It was probably started a couple of years ago, but I'm not sure when because it hales from my pre-blog days.

And a close-up of the handle:

I thought about doing a reverse stockinette i-cord for the handle but the silk has NO give and after a few rows, I knew it wasn’t something I wanted to knit for a handle-length, so that effort went to the frog pond. I settled on this 5 stitch garter handle. I stitched it into a tube along the edges so it’s like a mock i-cord. I knitted in an extra strand of a fingering weight plum color wool/cotton in the handle.

Just for the record:
Yarn: Sari Silk 1.2 skeins 234 grams
Needles: blue straights, size 8 and size 5 (one of each)
size 7 dpns for the handle
Pattern: my own based on short row wedges

The bag may get a lining. At some time, to be determined, later. If I decide it needs one. But for now, I am declaring it done.
.

And these are oak galls.

I understand that they are a good source of tannic acid for natural dyeing. But I have no idea what to do now that I’ve picked a grande (why or why can’t they call it large? Or extra-large. When I order, I ask for large. They always know what I’m talking about. But I digress…) cup full. Suggestions and instructions welcome.

Stay tuned for an update on the maple man's sweater tomorrow.

I have an excuse

2007-09-24T19:46:00.000-05:00

Irish Moss is not getting it's usual majority of my time. Ball 7 is not done in week 7. I have an excuse. [Warning: picture heavy post]

My birthday present, a new Lendrum double treadle from Woodland Woolworks arrived on Friday afternoon
[link]

I have been busy spinning:

And my favorite up close:

spun from this targhee (that came with the wheel) that I dyed:

And just for the record, my first (from a corriedale x that also came with)

There's some overspinning.

The second spun yarn (second from the left) was spun from this:

Also dyed by moi. I was testing my procion fiber reactive dyes. They seem to work fine by the vinegar soak, set in the oven method.

Everybody, well only dh and dd have seen my singles, feels a need to tell me that some places are thicker and some thinner. That may be true but they seem pretty darn even for a newbie. And I think when plyed (or is it plied, I have a new language to learn), and knit, I think it will even out.

Oh, yeah, Irish Moss, well, there has been progress:

9 grams are left on ball 7.

6 weeks 6 balls

2007-09-16T19:45:00.001-05:00

im091607 006
Originally uploaded by soapquiltknit

The knitting on Irish Moss is over half way up the front. I started on ball 7 today.

The blue yarn markers on the right show how far each ball went. Current projections are that the sweater will require 12 balls (4 for each of front and back, 2 for each sleeve) so there may be leftovers. I'm guessing that at the end of this sweater, I'll be tired of brown (Hazel) silky wool so the extras will be available for sale or trade.

birthday presents

2007-09-13T21:48:00.000-05:00

I've just returned from my birthday dinner with dh and dd. Full of steak and cake. And a shiner bock so there had best be no knitting...

This morning when I came to the kitchen for my coffee there was a card and a box of chocolates. The card was interesting. The cover promised to make my birthday more interesting by a search for my present. We used to do that when dd was littler. Finding her presents was a game with clues leading to clues and eventually to her presents. The inside of this card held the hints:

1. It's in a store somewhere.
2. It hasn't been paid for.

Now this might seem like a cop-out but I dropped a hint recently about getting a spinning wheel and this is the maple man's way of saying "get what you want, because I don't know how to buy a spinning wheel". Actually, he asked dd to do the spinning wheel shopping but she knew enough to know she didn't know how to buy a spinning wheel. So spinning wheel shopping we will be going... I'm thinking a lendrum (and the lendrum is made of maple so that's a plus) but I sure would like to spin on one before I order one. Looks like the prices are the same all over. Any recommended Lendrum sellers?

Sweater updates soon. Ball 6 is still in progress.

And the new knitty is out. Blog posts suspended briefly for knitty browsing.

handspun baby set

2007-09-11T17:43:00.000-05:00

In other knitting, here is a hat and booties for a co-worker who is having a baby girl in October. The shower is this week and they are blocking as I type.

The hat, up close:

The pattern is Madge from knitty [link] with the cast-on reduced from 80 to 60. The yarn is my own handspun, dyed pink in the roving, with darker and lighter places, with cherry kool-aid.

The bootie pattern is my own. I knitted both of the booties semi-simultaneously to make sure they would come out the same. And use the yarn to best advantage. There is one yard of yarn left.

recycled silk bag UFO

2007-09-10T21:53:00.000-05:00

I really have been knitting almost monogamously on the sweater, but there are few other projects on the needles for times when I need something that I can pick up and put down easily. Or knit without thinking too much. Or when I am sick of cables...

This recycled silk bag has been on the needles for, umm, maybe a couple of years. I'm not sure.

I decided to finish it as a project for the stashalong project [link]. I found the bag about 3/4 through with the first wedge. There were no notes about the short row plan I made up. So I made it up again. Maybe it's the same, maybe not... it's close enough that it matters not. And finishing it in September "buys" me an extra yarn day in the stashalong game.

In other news, have you seen the new knitpicks options harmony needles [link]? Wooden interchangeable needle tips that fit the knitpicks options cords. Made of what looks like laminated layers of brightly colored wood. With nice points. Together with some of my Sisters Of the Wool, I have some on order to try.

Irish Moss - 5 weeks - 5 balls

2007-09-09T18:14:00.000-05:00

What is beginning to be my weekly update on Irish Moss for the maple man:

I am ~~slogging~~ knitting along on the front. Ball 5 (first ball used for the front) yielded about 6 inches. [The little blue yarn loop on the right side marks where ball 5 ended.]

The rows are 195 stitches long. I'm still doing lifelines at the end of (16 rows) charts B and D. I still have to look at the pattern for charts B and D. The other charts are burned into my brain.

September 1 status

2007-09-01T19:59:00.000-05:00

The state of the knitting at chez maple:

I was tempted to skip this status report as it will likely not be very interesting (translation: not so many finished objects to blog about). As the reader may realize, I am slogging along with the Irish Moss sweater and will likely continue that slog for another month or two…

finished during August 2007
1 baby hat
2 sleeves (1 baby hat as my only FO was just tooo lonely so I'm listing the sleeves)
no socks
So the sock total for 2007 is still 14 pairs

2007 Knitting status 9/1/07
Same as last month plus
Irish Moss
baby booties (to go with the hat)
OK, for the record the wip/ufo total is up from 7 to 9.

For September knitting, I plan to continue to focus on Irish Moss.
There may be intermittent other knitting. For when I need mindless knitting. Or when my finger hurts. Or when I can’t stand it anymore and I need to finish something. Anything.

I will work on my attitude. Repeat after me (she says to herself) ... this will be a nice sweater, keep knitting the nice sweater ...
I've already warned the maple man that if it doesn't fit, he may need to lose (or gain) a few pounds. He didn't say no...

Irish Moss at one month

2007-09-01T19:37:00.001-05:00

im090107
Originally uploaded by soapquiltknit

Well, technically, four weeks as I started on Saturday, August 4.
Both sleeves are on hold pending the baste-y try on time that will come later. They each consumed almost two balls of yarn, and need a saddle which will come later, after I finetune the sleeve length.

I am knitting with ball 5 (35 grams remaining. I just completed row 18 (of 23) of the lower front ribbing, which is complicated by integrated chart A cables. The knitting on the ribbing is going slow. There are 167 stitches per row.

I had to do some re-calculations on the front because my gauge differs from Alice's. I may have mentioned that my first gauge swatch matched the pattern gauge but I didn't like the fabric at that gauge. I feared it was too "loose" for a sweater and probably too likely to get droopy sag-itis. I ended up adding a C/E chart and corresponding A chart to each side, and some extra moss stitches. This required recalculating the increases that I will do on the first row after the ribbing. As written, the ribbing flows into the cables with the increases providing just the right amount of extra stitches to make the cables flow on up smoothly. I hope my as modified plans do the same.

baby madge

2007-08-27T11:04:00.001-05:00

madge082607
Originally uploaded by soapquiltknit

One of my co-workers is expecting. In October, I think. And this home-dyed (in the roving with cherry koolade) handspun was just hanging around with nothing to do. So I plied it and started Madge on 60 stitches (instead of 80 like the pattern specifies). Hopefully, it will come out baby sized. And hopefully, the new mother will forgive me for gifting her with a hand-washing-required baby hat.

The pattern is from the spring 06 issue of knittyspin [http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEspring06/FEATKSmadge.html]

Maybe this will be lunch time knitting and the sweater (and the maple man) will forgive me for cheating.

Sleeve 2

2007-08-26T19:13:00.000-05:00

Sleeve 2 for Irish Moss is on the home stretch. I am halfway through ball 4.

And up close:

Soon I will have to figure out adjustments for the front and back. Due to my gauge "adjustments" I will have to have a few more double moss stitches in the side/underarm area. And perhaps an extra purl between motifs. I have to plan carefully because AS has a very elegant transistion between the rib and the cable-y sections with Chart A integrated into the rib. At least she did for the sleeve cuffs. And I don't want to mess it up.

How much yarn?

2007-08-20T18:27:00.000-05:00

Some early-in-the-sweater musings on how much yarn it will take to knit Irish Moss. I'll follow-up as the knitting progresses and at the end.

I bought 15 skeins, based on yardage calculations, you know, what the pattern specified and how many yards are in each skein, and how many yards are in each skein of this yarn. Plus 2 skeins because I needed to add 8 inches to each sleeve. Plus 2 balls for insurance. I know that is probably overkill but I did not want to run out of yarn. Or have yarn nerves.

Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool [Hazel]

I used 1.8 skeins, so far, on sleeve 1. Sleeve 2 is in progress.
Based on sleeve yarn consumption, I'm guessing, and this is just a rough guess, that the front and back will each take 4 skeins. Total ~12 skeins.

The good news, if this projection is any good, is that I may finish sooner than I thought. They bad news is that I may have overbought by 3 skeins.

Irish Moss sleeve 2

2007-08-19T19:20:00.001-05:00

im081907
Originally uploaded by soapquiltknit

Measuring Irish Moss by the ball got complicated.

Sleeve 1 may be done but there are 11.8 grams of yarn left on ball 2. I put sleeve 1 on a holder cable (luv those kp options). I'm waiting until I have knitted the sweater body and done some basting before I bind off sleeve 1. I may add up to an inch or two to the length.

The maple man held it over his arm way up at the shoulder and wrapped toward his armpit and declared that more length was needed. I didn't want to explain ease and all. I matched the knitted sleeve up with the target sweater that I'm roughly sizing to, and it matches nicely at the underarm seam area but comes up short a bit at the shoulder area. I'll have to check that sweater more closely for some top of sleeve shaping.

Sleeve 2 started with ball 3 (28.6 grams left as of this writing.) This evening's knit time is not over but the sunlight was fading fast so I wanted to get some pics. And having pics, I wanted to get this blog post put up.

Blog posts may be slim during the Irish Moss period. I have a hard time getting excited about posting that 10 grams have been knit. Or showing a picture of a sleeve that is a coupla' inches longer.

On another subject, though still knitting related.... If perchance I don't get my fill of double moss stitch with this sweater, I've got my eye on the minimalist cardigan in the new fall Interweave Knits [link]. I've joined the kal blog and am watching as others knit it. To see how they like the curly front stockinette band.

more Irish Moss

2007-08-12T21:12:00.000-05:00

The sweater is not a surprise to the maple man. He may be surprised if/when I get it done but he knows I'm working on it. His initial projection was that he thought I would knit one yard per day and it would take six years to complete. I haven't heard any recalculations after I knitted one ball in week 1. His birthday is in mid-November and that's my target but if that doesn't work out, Christmas is my back-up plan.

I ask him to "try it on" almost daily, as in laying the sleeve over his arm to see how far up it goes. Then I wrap it around his upper arm to see if I'm done with the increases. I'm not. But they are getting farther apart. I'm trying to keep notes so sleeve 2 can resemble sleeve 1.

I did a lot of stuff today between knitting times. There was laundry, and playing on the computer (have you seen the madge hat on knitty (and ravelry) and the sheep wrap?). There was some spinning. And making grape jelly. And I frogged fetching. I decided sooo tight was not a good idea, so they'll be restarted as time permits. I was going to help mow the front yard but by the time I heard the mower, and went to the bathroom, and found my shoes, I was looking for my gloves and he was done. Darn?

But there was knitting on the sweater. 10 grams worth.

one week one ball

2007-08-11T19:16:00.001-05:00

IM081107 001
Originally uploaded by soapquiltknit

I've been knitting one week ( well, technically eight days if you consider that I started knitting on said sleeve last Saturday, I think, and this is Saturday evening) on Irish Moss and I have one sleeve approximately up to the maple man's elbow (abour 13 1/4 inches). I'm just about done with the increases so it will be fairly straight up from here.

I'm trying to hang tough and knit almost monogamously on this sweater, but dang, my right index finger (the pusher finger) is getting sore.

I have found a handy feature of my kp options circ. There's a little hole near the cable join that works as an automatic life-liner. You may see some light green lifelines in the pic. I am putting them in at the end of each 16 row chart, just in case of disaster, and I'm keeping them as a counting aid. Also I think they will help make for even seaming.

Followup on grape mush

2007-08-07T11:35:00.000-05:00

I don't think I did a followup post to the grape mush dyeing experiment. Here is the result:

It's kind of a grayish-silverish with a hint of lavender.

Not bad, but not the color I was expecting. The jelly bags are cotton and much more brightly "stained".

Irish Moss 2

2007-08-06T21:35:00.000-05:00

Some knitting math:
Ball 1 started at 48 grams and is now at 29.3 grams. 39 percent of ball 1 has been knit. 7 grams were knit tonight. I'm not ready to make long term projections, but this sweater is a long-term-project.

Lynn, I don't know if I've gotten to fun yet. It is going faster, and I'm doing some of my cabling without a cable needle. Thanks to Wendy of www.wendyknits.net. Here's a link to her lesson on doing cables without a cable needle [link].

There is still quite a bit of paying attention. Especially on that center chart. Something happened on the second time through, different from the first... But I'm calling it a design element.

Irish Moss 1

2007-08-06T06:39:00.000-05:00

The maple man is getting a sweater. Knit by me.

Now, he's a big guy, about 6'4", with long arms so this is a major knitting committment. He has hand-knit socks but no sweater knit by me. He is a patient husband who knows how much knitting means to me. He handles his share of the housework and cooking and shopping, or more, so as not to cut into the knitting time (or blogging time ). He never complains about how much I spend on yarn, though I am reasonable (at least in my opinion), or books, or needles or etc. He likes "eating out" (what we call eating in the den) which is good because of the various projects and yarn and fiber etc that generally covers the table. Or should I say tables. Don't ask.

I've been looking at patterns and giving him choices, and he settled on Irish Moss from Starmore's aran book. My local library has it and it is surprisingly generally available. And I have a couple of Sisters (of the Wool) who have it, if I should use up my check-out-limit.

The Silky Wool from last week's lys yarn sale is the chosen yarn. Light enough for general winter wear in Texas. Wooly enough for pleasant knitting. Based on my swatching, I had to drop down to a size 5 needle to get a nice sweater fabric that hopefully won't get the droops (that's a technical term that some of you may know).

However, the pattern specifies gauge in moss stitch, which is fine, but moss stitch is just the underarm filler. But what about all those cables?? So after working out my gauge, and swimming my swatches, being unable to do adjusting calculations without a major swatch-fest of every cable included, I threw caution to the wind and cast on for a sleeve. Sisters, pick yourselves up off of the floor.

Then I tried the first cuff on him, frogged it and cast on for a bigger cuff.
[Just for the record, and for the second sleeve cuff, the cuff is knit on size 3's.]

Without further ado, here are the first pictures of Irish Moss:

and up close:

Now I do hope this blog does not become too boring. I plan to focus a lot of knitting time on this sweater. I plan to knit at least one ball per week, which is 175 meters. This also gets the sweater done in time for his birthday in November. And in time for winter. If we have winter. There are lots of cables to knit with associated chart-paying-attention. As far as blogging, I will post a progress pic at least once per week with perhaps more frequent gram reports.

August yarn day

2007-08-05T19:05:00.000-05:00

New yarn goodies:

Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool for the maple man's sweater (15 skeins):

Mission Falls wool that completes my color collection for a sweater for me:

Rio de la plata Sock yarn that looks homespun. Probably for me.

And hempathy, to try, probably for a lacey, stretchy bag:

good or bad

2007-08-03T23:42:00.000-05:00

One of my Sisters (of the Wool), bookgrump, asked whether her Sisters had been good or bad at a lys sale.

My reply was to request a definition of good. lol

I thought I did pretty good. I bought yarn for a sweater for the maple man and he's a big tall guy so I bought a LOT of skeins of Silky Wool. (I've been swatching and it's making me crazy. I can "get gauge" per the pattern but I don't like the knitted fabric at that gauge. So I dropped down a needle size and made another swatch... They're swimming now. I feel some calculations coming on, to make my gauge work with the pattern.)

And I filled in the Mission Falls colors I needed for a sweater for me. I've been collecting colors as I find them on sale. And one skein of sock yarn. One of the Rio de la Plata handspun looking sock yarns. And one prospective buy (a yarn that wasn't on my mental "must have" list) - one skein of hempathy, probably for a lacy stretchy bag.

All for 25 percent off.

But if good means you didn't get much yarn, I guess I was bad...

Stay tuned for pictures tomorrow.

August 1 status

2007-08-01T18:31:00.000-05:00

The state of the knitting at chez maple:

finished during July 2007 count 6
Monkey socks
Loksins socks
4 hats

This makes 14 pairs of socks completed during 2007.

2007 Knitting status 7/1/07 Started: count 7
fetching (with my spindle spun yarn!)
malabrigo wrap/shawl (yes, you haven't seen this one)
and 5 carry-overs from last month (and longer, it seems like forever for some of these)
Cat Bordhi lace socks
blue Regia two skein stripes
knitty Grace
pink cotton sweater (This project is knitted, and the seaming is started.)
recycled silk bag

The UFO count last month (and the month before) was 7, and is still 7.

Let's check progress against plans... For June knitting, I planned to finish the Monkeys and Loksins. Check and check.
I planned to get that pink sweater seamed. This didn't work so well, but at least the ufo count didn't increase.

For August knitting, I plan to get another pair of socks into active knitting mode. Old/new, I haven't decided.
For the nth time, I'm going to plan to get that pink sweater seamed.
I'm going to knit at least one skein per month on the malabrigo wrap. No need to get in a hurry here as it will be a while before it will be cold enough to need it.
I may get some yarn for a sweater for dh. He has calculated that if I knit a yard a day on it, it will take 6 years. I'm guessing I can knit more than a yard a day. And it may take a couple or three months. He's a big guy and the pattern (likely Irish Moss) has lots of cables.

jelly or dye

2007-07-28T20:31:00.000-05:00

I was on my way to the farm today to help sell trees.

On the way, I stopped at a small town library. In the lobby, there was a cart with books and videos for sale. There was a poster with prices, among them hardbacks for $1.00, coffee table books for $3.00. I glanced through and found two knitting books. Two of Barbara Walker's treasuries in hardback. The first and the third (charted). I grabbed them up and tried to stay calm. I went into the library and approached the desk to pay. The woman who wasn't busy said $6.00. I started to take money from my wallet and the other woman said "no, it's $2.00, those aren't coffee table books." I'm thinking you guys are nuts, these are classics, why are you selling them, they should be on the shelves (this library has a knitting book shelf that is, shall we say, lacking. I kept my mouth shut, gave the woman $2.00 and was on my way.

There are no library cards or library marks so I'm guessing they were donations. Lucky for me. Squee!! The rest of this story is that one of the maple man's friends helps occasionally in her church's thrift store. I understand there ~~are~~ were several knitting books on the shelf. I don't know what books they are but I'm certain that I, or one of my Sisters Of the Wool, will enjoy them. (He thinks one of the books may be a Barbara Walker?) Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be getting them until he sees his friend at the fall rhodie meeting.

On to the jelly or dye part of this post:
After lunch, there weren't any customers so I decided to take a walk in the back "field". Usually in early July there are wild grapes, probably muscadines, along the fence line. This is late July but I thought I'd check. Actually, I hadn't planned this adventure, so I wasn't dressed for it. Normally, if I plan to pick grapes, I go early before it gets really hot, and wear double jeans (a pair of dh's over mine) and a long sleeve shirt and boots. The "field" I walk through is quite overgrown with briar and bull nettle and misc. other weeds. With the rain we've had this year, there was a bumper crop of weeds and I had to high step to get over and through them. The first couple of spots where I thought I'd find grapes were bare and the grape vines had a dried leaf look so I was afraid I had missed out. A few hundred feet back, I found some vines hanging heavy with grapes. I had to pass on some as there was a very healthy crop of poison ivy growing below the vines up to almost waist high. On back I found more, and my bag was soon filled with plenty of grapey goodies. So late in the season, all the grapes were well ripened so I didn't have to pick grape by grape. I could grab for whole clusters. Not the clusters like the domesticated supermarket grapes but clusters of 6 or 8. The result was about 7 pounds, weighed roughly by difference (me with grapes, and me without), on the bathroom scale.

They've been picked over, stems removed, rinsed and simmered. Now they're dripping through the jelly bag, making juice which will be ready for jelly making tomorrow.

Now if you've made grape jelly before, you may know about the mush that is left. It is mostly skins and seeds and if you splash it on your clothes it stains. It normally goes in the compost pile but just now I'm thinking natural yarn dye. And I'm kicking myself for throwing out the plum mush from a couple months ago. I'm saving the mush and plan to dye some yarn, probably some superwash sock yarn because I have to able to wash the mush off. I'm not sure what I need to use with the grape mush to make the dye "stick". At Heritage Arts, the yarn was soaked in vinegar water, and a glug of vinegar was added to the dye cup. White vinegar. In my pantry, we have apple cider vinegar, rice vinegar, red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar. Maybe more, but no white vinegar. So I guess I'll try the cider vinegar. And I brought home some well water from the farm. The water from the shallow wells that we primarily use for watering the trees has a high iron content. Which I think has a mordanting character. And a high sulphur content. Not sure what that will do to grape mush and wool yarn. I will hope it can't hurt. Stay tuned.

fetching with homespun

2007-07-28T09:59:00.001-05:00

I've decided my first plyed (or is it plied) homespun yarn wants to be fetching (from knitty last summer [link])

The pattern calls for a cast-on of 45. My yarn measures, based on wraps per inch, at worsted to heavy worsted (with some sections more like dk, it's my first hand spun yarn y'know) so I thought maybe I'd need to go smaller. I tried 40. It was too big. So I dropped to 30 and it fits, but quite snugly. But I wasn't in a mood to frog and go up to 35, so 30 it is.

I'm knitting on size 5 dpns, pretty much following the pattern except for the stitch count. I thought I would need fewer rows between the cable-y cuff and the thumb, but repeated try-ons are telling me to keep knitting. I have finished knitting the first smallish ball. I have another ball this size and a bigger ball so I'm pretty sure there is enough yarn.

A question for the spinners among you:
Part of my process for getting this yarn off of the spindle involved winding it onto my ball winder. So I have nice little cakes of yarn. After plying, the yarn is fairly balanced, so I went back and forth on whether I "need" to do the make a skein and soak and weight thing. And I wanted to knit it, so I skipped the skein-soak-weight. Is that really bad? I don't know whether "need" is a "really need to" or a "if you want to" need or a "most people do, so they think you need to". Help please. All opinions welcome.

my toe

2007-07-27T21:02:00.000-05:00

I've been meaning to write about "my toe" but haven't gotten a round tuit for a while. If you've been reading my blog long, you may remember another version, but this is the latest.

One of my Sisters Of the Wool wanted to try "my toe" this week, and though I had given her some guidance, it was a some time back and her notes were not complete, so here goes...

This toe works well for top-down socks, and for after-thought heels. The look reminds me of the line you get with short row heels, but with absolutely no holes. I like the look better than the traditional toe decreases, but that's personal preference.

Basically, the idea is to decrease at each side of the toe area. On every row. On one row, it's ssk and on the next row, it's k2tog. And the decreases share the center stitch.

When you are nearing the point on your sock where you want to start the toe decreases, (it's the middle of my little toe, for me), place markers just before the center stitch on each side of the foot. For example if you have 60 stitches in your sock, there will be 30 stitches between each marker.

Round 1: *Knit until 2 stitches before the marker. ssk slip marker * Repeat from * to *.

Round 2: *Knit until 1 stitch before the marker. Slip the stitch (purlwise) to the right needle Remove the marker. Slip the stitch back to the left needle (purlwise). k2tog Place marker. * Repeat from * to *.
[This stitch slipping is to get the marker out of the way because you are knitting the stitch just before the marker together with the stitch just after the marker.]

Stitch arrangement hints: If I'm using dpns, I arrange the stitches on 4 dpns, with about a quarter of the stitches on each needle, and the markers are at the center point of those dpns. If I had 60 stitches going down the leg, I would have 16 stitches on each of the dpns that had markers and 14 on the other two dpns. After a while, some stitch shifting would be necessary due to consuming the stitches on the dpns with markers. If magic looping, I would rearrange the stitches so that there were 30 stitches on each but the "gaps" are at the middle of the top of the foot and the middle of the bottom of the foot. The same idea would work for you two circ knitters too, I expect, though I don't have personal experience there.

I do these decreases decribed above until I've decreased away about half of the stitches I'm going to decrease. For instance, if my sock had 60 stitches, and I were going to decrease down to 20, I would do the decreases above until I was down to 40. Or 36. I determine the switch over point by trying the sock on. At the point where I decide the sock is close to long enough and I better hurry up these decreases, (when I try it on and there are just the ends of a couple toes sticking out) I switch to double decreases every row. Switching to double decreases at the end gives a nice round toe.

Double decrease round (every round): * Knit until two stitches before the marker. Slip one stitch knitwise. Slip the next stitch purlwise. Remove marker. Slip the stitch back, purlwise. k2tog. Pass the first slipped stitch over. Place marker. Repeat from *.

Stop decreasing when the sock is long enough and you are down to the number of stitches you like. Close the toe with kitchener stitch. Or three needle bind-off. Or however you like to close toes.

Please let me know if this decription is clear. And if you use "my toe", please send a picture or a link.

"my toe" copyright 2007 jdb soapquiltknit
Feel free to use "my toe" in your socks, or your sock patterns, with credit please.

loksins are done

2007-07-27T20:48:00.000-05:00

Well, they're very very close. I still need to close the toes. I'm waiting for the kitchener mood to strike. And I need to weave in the ends. And there are extra ends to weave in due to yarn switching because of the dye lot variations.

ETA pics:

The toe stitches are on hold probably until Tuesday when I will recruit help, to help me like kitchener'ing better.

And a side view of the toe (watch for a my toe post coming up soon)

we have yarn

2007-07-26T13:00:00.000-05:00

The title may seem a little silly. But of course, you might be saying, we have yarn.

What I mean is that this merino fiber:

that you may remember from a couple of weeks ago, was spun into these bundles of singles (is there a proper spinner word for a spindle full of yarn? And some yarn that was offloaded from a spindle onto a handy knitting needle. In the most in-elegant way. Spinners, skip on down to the pictures. I pushed the yarn off the spindle and shoved the knitting needle in fast, before the hole closed up, and hoped I wasn't messing anything up. The spindle was "full", perhaps overfull, and I wasn't in a mood for winding the yarn off by hand. And I didn't know I could wind off of the spindle with my ball winder.)

and then plied into this yarn:

I'm so proud. My first spun yarn...

Now, this spinning thing, is reminding me of my start with quilting. The first quilt I started was not the first quilt I finished.

There is still this bit of yarn.

That I spun, ummm, a couple of months ago. I need to clear those singles off of Judy's spindles and get them back to her. [Thanks again, Judy.]

another gusset

2007-07-25T21:09:00.000-05:00

Loksin #2 is coming along nicely. I started the gusset on Sunday afternoon. I had a hard time getting around "tuit". You wouldn't believe the number of puttering around the house things I had to do to put off knitting that gusset. I don't know what it is with me but it seems like I'd rather do almost anything that knit a heel flap and gusset. Now this sock was waiting it's turn in the knitting queue with the heel flap and turn already done. So it wasn't that big of a deal. But still...

Well, I tried the heel flap pick-ups that Angeluna taught me. It's like "shoop shoop shoop". Those are the sound effects she uses when she's convincing me how quick and easy it is. Now when I picked up the first loksin's heel flap stitches, or rather, when she demonstrated it to me, and I mostly watched, [well, maybe I did a couple of the stitches] all of the picked up stitches appeared on the needle correctly mounted. This time, they all appeared, somehow, incorrectly mounted. As my intent was to knit them through the back loop, and I don't know how to knit a backwards stitch through the back loop, I ran another needle through all to correct the mounts. With minimal grumbling.

Enough talk. We have gussets. Let's show the pictures.

And sock #2 up close:

If you look really close, you can see where I changed over to the rosier yarn, then knit a row with the leg skein, then back to rosy, to "feather" in the new color. Generally, it's not a jarring stripey difference though.

Stay tuned for a spinning and plying report tomorrow.

sock yarn dyeing adventure

2007-07-22T19:15:00.000-05:00

Angeluna (of PurlsbeforeFrogs) and Jo (of Celtic Memory Yarns) and I went on an adventure to Heritage Arts on Saturday. For a most reasonable price, Lorelei provided a skein of pre-wetted sock yarn and access to more colors of dye than a person could want to use. And instruction and guidance. And the other dye-ers provided plenty of inspiration.

And the sweet Jo brought me a skein of her merino tencel sock yarn (50/50) with a lovely sheen like silk. With Lorelei's permission, I dyed it too.

And up close:

And we have new yarn:

Angeluna got some of this last week. And I thought about getting some, but didn't. So I called Sue last week. It went something like this "Remember that yarn in the basket? I want it. How much is there? I want it all. Will you hold it for me until Saturday?" This is Texas wool, unlabeled as to yardage and weight. At home, I have weighed it and done some yardage calculations. My scale and Excel are so handy. I have 10 skeins of the lighter brown totalling 570 grams which should be about 990 yards (based on the weight of 10 yards and ratio calculations). Now this could be clogs and bears. And maybe brown chickens. Or it could be a cardigan if I had about two or three more skeins. Anybody willing to trade three darks for three lights?

In other knitting news, there is progress on the loksin. I have knitted about 15 grams of the rosier sock yarn onto sock #1 since the gusset. And snipped the yarn. Sock #2 is now getting it's turn with the rosier yarn. Here is the current status of sock #1. [The blue yarns show where row 1's of the chart started. It's a game I was playing.]

Better close for now. The maple man wants to "play" computer.

p.s. we've passed 10000 views!!

in the depths of the gusset

2007-07-18T20:34:00.001-05:00

loksin718 003
Originally uploaded by soapquiltknit

Have I told you lately how much I don't like knitting the gussets on a top down sock?

links

2007-07-17T17:21:00.000-05:00

A new blog I've recently found that has excellent technical knitting posts, most recently focusing on weaving in ends:

http://techknitting.blogspot.com/

And a cute critter pattern for birds of a feather. I first saw it on Rosemary's blog (couldn't get a link to work), which led me to the free pattern here:
http://bittersweetblog.wordpress.com/2007/02/19/birds-of-a-feather/
Browse through her free patterns for lots of critters for both knitters and crocheters.

It's knit night tonight so this post will be short. Watch for updated pics of loksins (well, at least one of them) with picked up gussets. I have decided with respect to the color differences in the skeins, to knit both sock feet with the what is left of the rosier skein, then when/if it runs out, I'll finish both sock toes with the other skein. Then, depending on how the socks look, and after soaking the two together to hopefully harmonize the colors (thanks for this suggestion in the comments), I may overdye the pair.

for Debbie

2007-07-16T18:08:00.000-05:00

This is a knitting blog with lots of knitting content and little personal content.

However from time to time there are personal tidbits and glimpses. And this is one of those times.

You may have read on Claudia's blog about her bike ride to support the Multiple Schlerosis society. Last night I got an email from my nephew's wife about their support for a team of bike riders from my home town. One of the riders, Justin Brickman, [link] is riding for his mom, Lynn Brickman, and in memory of Debbie Fox.

Debbie lost her fight with MS in 2000. Debbie was my baby sister.

loksins at the heel flaps

2007-07-15T20:51:00.000-05:00

The loksins are closing in on the end of the heel flaps. Here is their first "together" picture:

Actually, they might be farther along by the time you read this. I wanted to get the pic outdoors with natural light. There was a chance of being carried off by mosquitoes but I managed to swat them away. Seriously, some of the pictures were blurry, I think, because of the swatting. Our recent rains seem to have resulted in a bumper crop of mosquitoes. But I digress.

Do you notice anything? Do those socks look a little different? They do to me, and it makes me groan to think that I had knitted almost two full legs before I held them up to each other, in light where I could see them clearly. I have checked the ball bands. They are the same color number, same dye lot. But one is just a touch pinkier. And one is more tannish.

I'm taking them down to the heel turn, each on their own ball of yarn. Then I'm going to ponder what to do next.

another hat

2007-07-15T20:20:00.000-05:00

Remember that pile of blue and green yarn scraps gathered for the car trip? [link]

Well, there's only this much left:

There were 140 grams of odds and ends in various shades of blues and greens. Now there are 40 grams. 100 grams of stash busted. Yea!!

Here it is, up close:

That bit of sparkle was a golf ball size of multi-colored fingering weight, probably a wool silk blend. Here's a pic of the last bit that was left. I wanted to get a pic before it got knitted in. The last yard or two had a fuzzy character like it might have been knit and frogged a time or two?

And the hat, finished, with ends woven in:

Just for the record,
yarn: mostly wool, mostly worsted weight, plus the fingering shown above, 3 strands held together and knitted as 1, 100 grams
needle: size 10us 16" circ
cast-on 61 (an odd number, I know. I pulled out a length of yarn that seemed about right for a long-tail cast-on. I cast-on stitches. As I ran out of tail, the collection of stitches seemed to reach around the circ nicely, so I declared it good and commenced knitting)
pattern: my own, here it is for all to share, I'm claiming copyright for stockinette hats knit in the round with three strands of wool bits and pieces and a cast-on of 61. Knit one for someone you care about. And/or for a person who doesn't have a hat.

cast on 61, join for knitting in the round (I like the bumps on the public side, but suit yourself)

knit one row

k1 p1 one row

knit round and round for a lot of rows until the hat is almost long enough
change yarns as little balls run out, or as the mood strikes. I used spit joins mostly to save myself from lots of ends to weave in.

decrease 5, evenly spaced around (to get down to 56, a multiple of 7)

do your favorite top of hat decreases (I like ssk's in a 7 point decrease, let me know if you want details.)

Some people like to ask me, "Who is that hat for?"
Well, I really like this hat. And the maple man likes it too. It fits both of us. So even though we both have a hat, we're keeping it. For a spare.

We have discussed the (hand) washing requirements.

Heritage Arts

2007-07-14T20:39:00.000-05:00

The loksin sock and Angeluna and I went on a little field trip today.

We went to Heritage Arts on Beaumont Ranch in Grandview, less than an hours drive from home. Angeluna was driving so I got to knit some. ;-) The shop has a quaint old west look from the outside:

And there was lots of that blue sky:

But just inside the screen door:

there was yarn:

But the Lokskin sock visited the wall o' fiber:

Actually we should have taken our fiber wall pictures before we shopped the wall. We tried not to make too big of a mess, and clean up after ourselves some, but let's just say the wall was a little fuller of fiber before we got there.

There was also dye and yarn for weaving and looms and spinning wheels and all manner of other fiber-related goodies. Their website is being updated so check back later.

Here's my new stuff:

some hand-dyed merino in a color called mohave and some white wool and a new student spindle that is sturdy for learning and practicing and a Hokett Would Work spindle in Paduak wood [no website found but here is a link to some info].

Check out Angeluna's blog [link] for another report.

Signing out for tonight. I'm off to play with my new fibers and spindles.

hats = car trip knitting

2007-07-14T07:33:00.000-05:00

The pink hat is nearing the top-of-hat decreases:

And knitting on the loksins is coming down the leg, but is perhaps not car knitting while chatting (about knitting)... so there may be a new hat:

from this collection of yarn scraps. There are 140 grams. Mostly worsted weight wools with a few sock yarn scraps and at least one bit of leftover acrylic. I plan to three strand it on a size 9 circ. Not sure what the cast-on will be, and I'll likely not count it as I cast-on. Blasphemy you say? Well, when you use a 16" circ, a "right" number of stitches just "works" around the circ. And I'm not sure who this is for. Depends how it turns out, it may be for a larger child or an adult. It may be for a homeless person. Or maybe it will be for me? Actually, it is for mindless knitting and stash/leftover busting; the hat result at the end is a bonus.

cable swatches

2007-07-13T22:10:00.000-05:00

My Sisters (of the wool) know that I sometimes read knitting patterns for fun. They sometimes call me the pattern whisperer. Yeah, maybe I'm a little weird. In any case, I have a queue project to make irish moss from Starmore's aran book for the maple man.

There is one cable chart for irish moss that has puzzled me recently. Actually it's two charts, one that crosses left and another that crosses right. You are knitting along with 1x1 rib tbl over 7 stitches and then 3 or 4 cross. And some of the colums, from the cable needle (I do own a set but they're never handy when I'm in a cabley (is that a word?) mood), change "mode", during the cross over. What I mean is that the k1tbl's turn into purls and the purls turn into knits.

So I had to swatch it:

And it works, as written. The middle cables in each set are my attempt at an "improvement" which as it turns out is ok but it's not an improvement at all. So my mind is at ease. I can quit reading that chat and saying "what?", or "surely this can't mean...".

tofu beach sarong

2007-07-12T17:42:00.000-05:00

A pattern comment post...

The project from the snb page-a-day calendar for weekend is called a Tofu Beach Sarong. It suggests Southwest Trading Company Phoenix (100% soysilk). I have some questions:

1) Why would you use a handwash-or-dryclean, dry-flat yarn to knit a beach cover?

2) If a beach sarong is knit 38" square, is it really a small afghan with a fancy name?

3) If a 38" garter knitted square ties around a model's hips with two ends tied so that the ties hang down 10 inches or so, what size is the model? No, the "sarong" is not tied around her diagonally.

So, though there is nothing technically wrong with the knitting instructions for this project, I wouldn't recommend it.

loksins progress plus

2007-07-11T20:50:00.000-05:00

There was loksins progress at knit night last night. There was some risk that I would not stay on the right row or would miss a yo or a decrease but all seems well with my sock. This is the cuff and start of the leg of the second loksin sock:

The first loksin is waiting midway through the heel flap.

And there is mindless knitting, another hat. I thought it was a baby hat, but now I think it's a little girl hat. We'll see what size it turns out to be.

There were many calculations based on ball band (kp crayon) gauge. But there was no gauge swatch as there is no definite intended recipient, so whatever the end size, it will fit someone. And as it turned out, I stopped short of my intended cast-on because, well, it seemed big enough. I knit a few (maybe 3?) rows of ribbing so I didn't get any roll at the bottom, then commenced stockinette, which will continue until I am sick of it or I get to about 5 or 6 inches. Then there will be top-of-hat decreases, probably around 7 decrease points.

The crayon yarn was purchased as a tester ball a year or so ago and has been stashed since. It feels soft in the ball, and is knitting up very very soft. It is cotton but is not hard on the hands to knit. I believe it is machine washable and machine dryable so would make nice baby things. And perhaps a nice soft sweater. Someday. After I have knit up some sweater quantities of yarn from the stash.

However, there has been very little knitting this evening. Because... I found a box on my porch tonight. My kp order with three new books from their 40% off sale. Two ez books which I've been reading this evening Knitting Around and Knitting Workshop. And Amy Singer's No Sheep for You.
Elizabeth liked 7 decrease points too.

hey hey its the monkees

2007-07-08T20:30:00.000-05:00

I couldn't resist. Some of you can guess my age if you also remember the Monkees show.

Here we have the finished ~~Monkee~~ Monkey socks:

The Monkey pattern is available on knitty [link] and was written by Cookie A. I knitted mine toe up with a heel adapted from Widdershins, also on knitty.

Many of you may know I'm a swatch proponent. Sit down now, as I did not swatch for Monkey, nor do I usually swatch for socks. Especially when knitting toe-ups, I can knit the toe, trying on as I go, increasing until it fits. I've knit enough socks for me, (and most of my socks are for me, I'm selfish that way), that I can generally tell within 2 to 4 stitches what will fit me based on the yarn and needles, and the yarn's similarity to a yarn I've knit before.

Back to the swatch topic, as I've confessed, there was no Monkey swatch, but I have a concern. I think these socks are destined to be a gift and I need to give care instructions. The ballband says Handwash Dryflat (like it's one word?). So I knit a swatch. After the sock. It's kind of a wimpy little swatch, with a cast-on of just 12 stitches. Two garter stitches on each side, mostly except for the row where I forgot (oh well), with eight center stitches. My Monkey gauge is 8 spi.

Then the swatch went for a swim, in a teacup of cool water. It's drying now. Next, I plan to test washing it in the washer on extra gentle and see how it comes out. There are some handknit socks that will likely get washed tomorrow so the swatch may go along. Perhaps in a lingerie bag so he doesn't get lost.

Just for the record:
Monkey socks started with a toe swatch June 9, 2007 (declared a real project June 18)
Finished 7/8/07
Yarn Panda Wool Cinnamon (9798 Lot B) 2 50 gram skeins (about 12 grams left) 46% bamboo, 43% wool, 11% nylon
Needles Knitpics 32" circ size 1.5us (2.5mm)
Pattern Monkey by Cookie A
Changes toe-up & custom cuff ribbing

I've been promising to share my Monkey cuff ribbing "pattern". When I examined Monkey 1 closely I found that I had minor variations in the cuff from the front half to the back half. I made a couple of adjustments when I cuffed Monkey 2 and it seemed to work fine. I'll bring them to knit night for a close look to see if anyone can spot the adjustments. The cuff pattern has k3, p2 and k1,p1 sequences. My idea was to continue the flowing-up-bands from the pattern as k3's into the cuff. The stitch sequence below starts at the same point in the sock where you might have started the p4 in row 2 of the chart.

*(p1, k3, p2, [k1, p1]3 times, k3, p2, k3, p2, [k1, p1]3 times, k3, p1) repeat from * once to knit 1 round of ribbing

I knit 14 rounds of ribbing on Monkey.

I'm not sure if this ribbing pattern would be useful to those of you who knit Monkey top down, but feel free to use it as you like.

more Regia hats

2007-07-07T22:09:00.000-05:00

This post may be untitled because I can't seem to get blogger to let me type a title. If it decides to cooperate tomorrow, maybe I can add a title.

eta a title. I found some help file that said to point the cursor to the line above the title box. It seems to work

If there had been a title, it might have been something like "more Regia hats"
But all this fussing with blogger has used up my time, and sapped me of some of my words, so you get pictures:

And close up detail, hat 1 first then hat 2:

Cast on for hat 2 was 85. Same size 6us kp circ (16").

There is still yarn left. I haven't weighed it but there's not enough for another hat. I could do some little socks but I'm thinking I'll collect all the little balls and do a grab=several-yarns-randomly and knit a hat on big needles like I did last fall.

There is progress on the monkey socks. There would be more progress if I would stay focused and quit getting distracted by baby hats. Watch for a finished pair pic tomorrow or Monday. And the promised detail about my rib variation.

ravelry

2007-07-06T19:45:00.000-05:00

I got my invite from ravelry today and have lost an hour or two already.

I've adopted a new name. I'm patternwhisperer. If you're on ravelry, add me to your friends list. If you're not on ravelry, head on over there and sign up.

I have a flickr account from my sock madness days but all my blog and project pics are on photobucket. I think I'll wait a bit to see if they connect up with photobucket. I'm not in a mood to duplicate all my pics onto flickr.

one sock at a time... sort of

2007-07-05T18:40:00.000-05:00

Brown Berry is having a group discussion on her blog about skerry knits. Several people have mentioned knitting two socks at a time.

Well, I'm here to say, I've tried it and it's not for me. But I'm not skeered of it.

I'm not a two circs sock knitter. I would say that my natural style is dpns, but I'm quickly becoming a magic loop convert. They are just so much easier to jam in the ziplock and there's very little danger of escaped stitches.

I can try-on socks on dpns by knitting in a few extra sticks but trying on socks on ML is even easier. When you're at the end of a row of knitting, pull the socks onto the loops, and try it on any old time.

I have tried knitting two socks at a time and it's perfectly workable ML style. However, it requires that I unloop the yarn from skein 1 (for sock 1) from my left hand, find the yarn for sock 2 and wrap my left hand. knit some-unwrap-rewrap-knit some-unwrap-rewrap and so on. I'm a confirmed continental knitter and must have the yarn well wrapped. All this unwrapping and rewrapping slows me down. And there is a risk that I forget the unwrapping/rewrapping and then sock 2 gets knitted with sock 1's yarn and you can guess where this is going. Tink-city.

About the "sort of" qualifier. My preferred method of knitting is bring two socks along together. What I mean is that I'm likely to knit the toe and foot of sock 1, then knit the toe and foot of sock 2. Then knit a heel on each sock, separately but in a close time proximity. Then the sock top of sock 1, another sock top for sock 2...

This paired knitting requires two identical needles available at the same time, and just now one of my fav size 1.5 (2.5mm) kp circ is missing in action. I am sure it is some project (likely socks, ya' think?) somewhere.

So I ordered another one. With some books at the big 40% off book sale at knitpicks.

But no hats for Monkeys

2007-07-04T21:01:00.000-05:00

We have hats and we have monkeys but we have no hats for monkeys.

Seriously, it has been a lazy day spent mostly knitting. I did get dressed. But not until about noon. And I walked the dogs briefly when the skies threatened to open (they didn't, at least not yet today, for the first time in 10 days).

And dh declared he wanted apple pie, and he peeled, sliced, and cinnamon-sugared the apples, so I made a pie crust. I may be the last person in the US who still does crust from scratch. Not often, mind you, due to the general not-so-healthy-ness of something with sooo much Crisco, but it's good once in a while... and it is a holiday.

Back to knitting content... there are hats finished. You saw the starts of these two recently:

I knitted the rounds of the regia at at knit night last night and started the top decreases. Finished the decreases this morning. Cast-on was 72. A friend at work, who has young kids, says it's a newborn to 3 months size.

There is 30 grams left on each (of two) balls on this Regia sock yarn, so...
I cast on another hat. I gave the yarn a tug on one ball, and the new hat will have a different, somewhat planned way for the colors to combine and stripe. Stay tuned. It's on hold while I knit socks. And seam up something pink. And available for when I might need truly mindless knitting. One advantage of a hat is that it doesn't need a matching (or not) little buddy, i.e. there is no second hat syndrome.

And we have progress on the Monkeys. This is monkey#2:

I did the gussets and heels today. [Angeluna, check out the little puddles on the upper arch ankle area. I didn't notice it until I took the pic.] We're on the homestretch now. Five chart repeats and some cuffs and some binding off and we'll have a finished pair Monkeys.

I'm doing something a little different on the cuffs.
I owe you details.

What is it they say about imitation?

2007-07-02T19:38:00.000-05:00

It's the sincerest form of flattery.

Angeluna, please do not stop showing me socks.

Seems it has happened before, though I do not remember the specific sock or the specific baby hat,

but here we have a new baby hat:

Very much like the sock I saw yesterday, shown in Angeluna's purlsbeforefrogs July 1 blog post. Scroll down a couple of screen-fulls.

The sock is the Undulating Rib sock from Favorite Socks recently published by Interweave, a very nice sock book, by the way. I modified the sock pattern to have 5 "plain" rows between the "fancy" rows because of the limited amount of real estate I have in the top of a baby hat. The yarn is Regia, purchased on ebay last year (or the year before, I forget). It was a good deal but I haven't gotten in the mood to knit socks with it and I don't feel the Regia faux fair isle mood coming on anytime soon. So I'm double stranding it on a size 6us circ (yea for knitpicks 16" circs). The cast-on was 72.

This project will use up some sock yarn and keep some baby's head warm. Unfortunately, (or fortunately) I think there will be enough yarn in two skeins of sock yarn to warm the heads of several babies.

July 1 status

2007-07-01T08:18:00.000-05:00

The state of the knitting at chez maple:

finished during June 2007 count 5
brown cestari socks
baby bear
blue baby hat (Briggs & Little Tuffy)
maple man hat (Lorna worsted Tuscany)
little hat like the maple man hat

This makes 12 pairs of socks completed during 2007.

2007 Knitting status 7/1/07 Started: count 7
Monkey socks
Loksins socks
Cat Bordhi lace socks
blue Regia two skein stripes
knitty Grace
pink cotton sweater (This project is knitted, and the seaming is started.)
recycled silk bag

The UFO count last month was 7, and is still 7.

Let's check progress against plans... For June knitting, I planned to finish some projects and knit some stash. Check and check.
I planned to finish two projects for every new project I start. This didn't work so well, but at least the ufo count didn't increase.
I want to knit some Monkey socks. Check.

For July knitting, I plan to finish the Monkeys, and maybe the Loksins. There is an ulterior motive. The monkey finish is a stashalong goal and earns me a free non-expiring yarn day.
There will likely be another hat otn.
I'm going to get that pink sweater seamed.
The recycled silk bag is calling to me. It's been a ufo so long that I may have to dust it. naaa

catch up pics

2007-06-30T15:01:00.001-05:00

Here are the pictures to go with last nights post. We've just finished our afternoon ~~shower~~ hard rain but I got these pictures a couple of hours ago when we were having some sunshine. And heat. And humidity. But I digress.

Here is one monkey and a nub of a toe of monkey 2:

And a closeup of the cuff of monkey 1:

And loksin leg 1:

Notice some of the lace pattern continuing down the heel. I'm sure the heel flap would be perfectly fine as written, and probably wear better, but as I rarely wear shoes with heels, I did my own thing. Have I mentioned lately that I don't like [to knit] heel flaps?

Baby bear, stuffed and with his face on:

His legs really are rather even despite their appearance in the picture. I think I must have had him posed at an odd angle.

And a bonus. A baby hat that makes easy farm knitting.

knit with leftover Briggs and Little Tuffy sock yarn. I was advised that I would need three skeins for men's socks. I didn't. [I used parts of two skeins.]