Parrot House

Those Lazy Days of Summer ... and Fall ... and Winter ... and Spring ...

I remember going to Girl Scout camp in the summer when I was in grade school and junior high. It was like being in another world for two weeks, with different food, different rules, life mostly out-of-doors, sleeping in cabins or under the stars, mosquito bites and dirty hair and cold showers once a week. New tribes of friends formed. We had girl-crushes on counselors.

I was allowed to take the family's Kodak Instamatic camera to camp. It was newfangled; the flash was built right in and you didn't have to carry flashbulbs (those somewhat-scary bulbs you plugged in with a cuplike reflector behind, and when the bulb went off -- which it didn't always, some of them being "duds" -- there was a loud "pop!" and you stood blinking with bright blue spots before your eyes.

Then there was the wait while you sent your film off to Brown Photo in a special envelope. A week or two later, your black-and-white pictures would arrive (color wasn't widely available yet, and was expensive) along with the negatives. You'd open the packet with a mixture of excitement and anxiety. Would they be good? Or would you have 12 or 24 or 36 pictures of your thumb or the inside of your duffel bag?

Now, of course, we have instant access to photos. Digital cameras let us see our shots immediately, and we can print them at home. So there should be no reason why photos are not readily available, right?

Ah, but you would be underestimating my laziness if you agreed with that. I would have been blogging so much more if only I could rouse myself from my stupor and open up the camera, pull out the memory card, put it in the card reader, plug the card reader into my computer, and upload the photos.

The moon must be in a beneficial phase, because I took these pictures (above) and then proceeded straight to the computer and did the do.

The project is called Parrot House, and it's from Lavish Lace by Carol Rasmussen Noble and Cheryl Potter ... sort of. There is what I believe to be an error in the pattern, and there's a bit I didn't like, so I changed it a little. But it's essentially the same big scarf / wrap. I'm doing it in Araucania Nature Wool Chunky, which I love. It's springy and meaty and easy to knit with. I'm enjoying knitting the project immensely, now that I've got past the difficulties in the pattern. The pattern is fairly easy to memorize, too, so it's good TV knitting.

Overall, I'm not pleased with the book Lavish Lace. The first project I knit from the book, Frost Flowers, had multiple pattern errors. I had to write to Martingale Press twice to report all the errors I found. Now, as I said, in Parrot House, there was also an error. Though I've gone back to the Martingale website multiple times, there are no more errata posted. It makes me reluctant to knit any more designs from this book without demanding a proofreader's fee.

Also, because the projects are lace done in variegated yarns, they seem to work best not only in the specific yarn and colorway photographed, but in some cases, in a particular Potluck dye lot which can never be found again. (The authors are the creative team behind Cherry Tree Hill yarns, and the projects are designed in these yarns.) It's very difficult to find the exact yarn that will work for a given project. There is much discussion in the book about how the yarns and colorways were chosen for the designs, but it only serves to convince me that it's best to stick to those exact yarns / colors.

I nearly drove myself to the Nut House (not the Parrot House) finding yarn that would work for this project. The scarf in the book was done in a Potluck (i.e. one-of-a-kind) Worsted Six-Pack. Every Worsted Six-Pack I considered would have been too busy for this cabled lace pattern. (In fact, I'm not sure I even like the one they chose for the book). The Araucania Nature Wool Chunky is working well, but not until I scoured my LYS and the Internet to get enough hanks in the correct color, which, of course, seems now to have been discontinued or at any rate seems to be unavailable.

That is my rant for today. Now I'm going to sink back into my couch like the true Potato that I am and knit. (Ahhhh ...)

Ahhh ...vacation ...

I spent the past week at Arrowwood Resort in Alexandria, MN sitting by the pool, looking at Lake Darling, swimming, reading, knitting, playing with my favorite 6-year-old, and eating about six meals a day. The onion rings at the cafe at the resort are excellent, and I ate a lot of them. The extra weight will help with flotation, I'm sure.

My mango Crocs enjoyed paddling in the foam at the edge of Lake Darling.

That squished blue ball of yarn you see under my arm in the photo above is going to be a sample baby sweater for my Lola Baby Bolero class (see the Classes tab at www.borealisyarn.com). This blue one will be an adapted, more "boy-looking"version with a straight bottom front instead of the curved fronts for the more girly version. The red one in the store is the original version with the curved fronts. The adaptation will be only available in my class as an addendum to the original pattern; you can't knit the whole sweater from the addendum.

I brought Shadow Shawl #3 with me to the lake, but as it needs some ripping and re-knitting, I didn't work on it. Not the most relaxing thing to bring on vacation, in retrospect.

I went to the State Fair yesterday and looked at all the knitwear in the Creative Activities building. Congrats to Katie and Jean and Paul for their awards. (Jean: you was robbed on the yellow/green/etc. shawl).

I've now eaten my annual quota of cheese curds, footlong hot dogs (OK, my sister and I shared one, so I guess I only had 6 inches), Pronto Pups, and other good-and-good-for-you foods. Some random Fair hints:

1. Go to Dino's Gyros if you want to sit down to eat. Yesterday there were about 75 people waiting to get into the Whatsis Dining Hall, but Dino's was mostly empty. And their gyros are really good.

2. Warning: the big hunk of bacon on a stick thing that's been hyped this year is maple bacon. Ewwwww .... at least to my taste. I'm a traditionalist when it comes to bacon and the sweet stuff should stay on its own stick.

3. Both the DFL booth and the Obama booth were rather disappointing; we were looking for bumper stickers or car magnets but all the Obama booth had were t-shirts, cardboard rally signs, and buttons. The DFL booth had even less Obama stuff. I'd say they really missed an opportunity. If you're tired, hot, grumpy with humanity, and at the end of your Fair visit, don't walk for blocks to visit the Obama booth, as we did. It's out of the way, hard to find, and about the size of a lemonade stand.

4. OK, cows give milk, but why is the Moo Booth situated in the stink zone of the Dairy Barn? Just as I don't like sweet stuff on my bacon, I don't really like to smell manure while I'm eating ice cream.

5. Park and Ride. We do it every year and it's awesome. The lot across the street from the 4th St. Ramp at the U of M (near 4th St. and 17th Ave.) is free and the bus ride takes under 10 min. There's no waiting for a bus, usually.

6. There's a horrible, loud, Hammond Organ machine in the Creative Activities Building this year. However, it only runs for about 5 minutes every hour. (Otherwise, I would have had to run out screaming in front of a Clydesdale.)

Maybe now that it is starting to feel a little more like fall I'll be knitting more ... ?

Fall classes

My fall classes will be posted on www.borealisyarn.com by August 25.

My planned classes are:

How to read a pattern (1 session)

How to fix mistakes (1 session)

Lola Baby Bolero (2 sessions)

Two toe-up socks at a time on the Magic Loop (3 sessions)

I don't have dates yet; check on the Borealis website or at the store.

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My favorite recent quote from my favorite soon-to-be-six-year-old:

We were driving past a gas station at which the workers were changing the price sign. I thought she might enjoy looking at the workers manipulating the magnetic numbers with their long pole, so I pointed this out to her. Her reply: "Don't you worry. Al Franken is going to take care of all of that for us."

Blahhhg

What can I say? I am, and have been, mostly uninspired all summer. I have finished a few unremarkable projects. Unremarkable, although I will just remark that one was another "One-Skein Nancy Shawl" in the Frida Kahlo colorway, and the other was the KPS "Easy Lace Poncho" (feather-and-fan lace done in the round on big needles) which is hanging up in the store. Both will be very nice to wear, but neither was particularly pulse-pounding to work on.

Well, the poncho may or may not be wearable once it's finished its stint as a store model, only because a lace poncho done in DK weight yarn on size 15 needles was not meant to be displayed on a hanger. Let's just say it will be the first ankle-length, formal poncho I've ever seen.

I'm putting together my class schedule for the fall, which should be available at the store and on the Borealisyarn.com website in a couple weeks. I'm thinking these classes may fill quickly, as we'll be getting a lot of extra attention to our store and website because of the temporary satellite store we'll be sharing in downtown St. Paul with a bunch of other yarn stores. (See Borealisyarn.com for more details.) It's at 4th and Cedar, and will be there for a few weeks, to coincide with the RNC.

If you're of the Democratic persuasion, you can always wear a pinch-on foil hat downtown to block the Republican rays.

If you have some time for reading this summer, read "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle", an amazing novel that I got lost in for days. (You can find reviews online that are better and more complete than what I could write).

I'm just finishing "My Sister, My Love" by Joyce Carol Oates, a darkly satirical (and disturbing, though riveting) novel that's about a family, and a murder case, that is much like the JonBenet Ramsey case. Though I didn't get sucked into too much of the JonBenet crap that was purveyed in the mass media, and therefore didn't read it in the hopes of finding out more about that case, it does raise some very disturbing questions about modern American culture. The only problem is that I may have to take about a week-long bath after I'm finished reading it.

In between these two books, I read Paula Deen's memoir "It Ain't all About the Cookin'" and Sandra Lee's memoir. I don't especially like either of these women's TV persona, nor do I like their cooking shows or recipes, but I often like to read cheesy As-Told-To memoirs. It's sort of like literary slumming. After reading the books, I have a lot of respect for both of these women, and the strength they had to overcome bad situations and succeed on their own terms. I still don't like their shows, but I don't think I'll make fun of them anymore.

The clock is now ticking down to State Fair (Fate Stair) time. (No, I haven't ever submitted anything to the Fair, and have no current intentions to. Why? I just can't be bothered.) And my sister B. and I are beginning to salivate for ... PRONTAGE! Yes, we are devotees of the Pronto Pup and stolid (and solid) opponents of the disgusting corndog. Why, Pronto Pups are Tempura Tube Steaks while corndogs are only coated weenies. And plus (also), corndogs are gross and just wrong and Pronto Pups are perfecta-mundo, especially with lots of mustard.

See you at the Seed Art display!

Logy mode

Not a lot of knitting is getting done here in tropical Columbia Heights. With the temperature and dewpoint up, my personal setting is set to 'logy' and the speed to 'slow'. I've been trying to find things to do that can be undertaken in my earth-sheltered (aka basement) digs without moving around much.

I did start that Norwegian mitten. I got about 1/2" into the thumb gusset before the heat took over. Somehow, it's not appealing to knit a winter item with a sturdy wool in 90 degree heat. Go figure.

In the meantime, I'm plodding away on the red cotton hoodie. It doesn't look photogenic at the moment, as it's all bunched up on a circular needle. So, hey, what a good excuse to not take a picture.

I survived the Jamboree and carnival rides without puking, although it was close. I braved one of those rides that goes in a big circle, while meanwhile your individual car whirls around. Then, as if that weren't diabolical enough, every once in a while, the arm that your car is on dips disastrously so that your stomach and other major organs are launched up against your uvula (look it up).

The whole fam damily went on a Happy Family Outing at the MN Zoo on the Fourth. Favorite Child was excited about seeing the big cats. Since the zoo exhibits are set up to be as much like the animals' natural habitats as possible, it's often hard to see the animals, or if you do, you see at most a leg protruding from a hiding spot or a hint of stripes amongst the leaves. So, after much walking, we took the monorail ride, from which it was also not possible to see a lot of animals, although from a different angle. Finally, a magnificent tiger came into view. "Look! Look!" we said to the child. "It's the tiger! The tiger!" However, at that moment, F.C. was absorbed in studying a bug on the outside of the glass of the opposite window, and could not be enticed, or even physically forced, to look away from it. I guess her parents should start saving for entomologist school.

Ennui

OK, I'm trying a new tactic.

I have been blogging only sporadically because I feel I owe it to you, dear reader, to see a picture of something every time I post. And then I get caught up in other priorities and don't do anything.

So, screw that.

Hello to shorter and more regular (I hope) posts, I hope, and (regrettably) fewer pictures.

The warmer weather overwhelms me with ennui. Ever since I can remember I feel "hot and itchy" and uncomfortable all summer -- just ask my mother, who had to put up with my incessant whining when I was a child. In Minnesotan, this is called "feeling logy". I've been extremely logy these past couple weeks, slumping around the house or slouching on a chair like a beached whale. Bleah.

This weekend is Columbia Heights' annual Jamboree. The parade was last night. There were Shriners in little boat-cars, unicyclists, clowns, high school marching bands, politicians, a bagpipe band, and lots of middle-aged guys driving by in cars with ambiguous hand-lettered signs so that one wondered: Yes, but who exactly is Joe Schmo, why is he riding past waving, and why am I supposed to care?

Lots of the organizations represented threw cheap candy, and I got beaned really hard by a Starlite Mint.

This afternoon I'm taking Favorite Child to the carnival where we can get pukey on all sorts of rinky-dink rides before the fireworks tonight, if the rain holds off.

I hope to start an adult-sized Norwegian mitten this morning before all the hilarity begins. I took Arnhild Hillesland's Norwegian mitten class last weekend at Borealis Yarns. The class was thorough, informative, exhausting, and Arnhild is a great teacher and lovely person. My class mitten was a bit of a mess, but I feel confident that the "real" mitten will be fine. I might even get around to posting a picture if I finish it and it looks OK!

Forgotten but not gone

Ever had one of those days when it was all you could do just to cope with daily life, much less do any of the things you should have been doing or wanted to do? Well, I've been having one of those days every day since my last post.

No, there's been no tornado, cancer, screaming meemies, or crisis of any kind. Just, you know: life.

I have been spending a lot of time with Favorite Child, now that she's graduated kindergarten. Today's activity was making a worm hotel. If you would like to make one of these with your own favortive child, here's the recipe:

YOU WILL NEED:

Clear cylindrical-shaped plastic container with a large mouth. One gallon is a good size.

Fresh soil from your garden, dry or slightly moist but not wet or muddy.

Sand.

A couple handfuls of grass and 3-4 fresh leaves of any type.

Up to 10 earthworms.

MAKING THE HOTEL:

Put a 1" layer of sand in the bottom of the container.

Put a 2" layer of soil over this.

Alternate layers of sand and soil until the container is nearly full, ending with a layer of soil.

Put the leaves and grass on top.

Spray LIGHTLY with water to just moisten the top layer of soil.

Add worms.

Cover with a layer of plastic film and secure this with a rubber band. PUNCTURE HOLES so your guests can breathe.

Find something that will surround the hotel and keep it dark while still leaving the top open to the air. You can open up the top and bottom of a cardboard box and slip it down over the jar like a sleeve. Or you can build a surround with black poster board.

Place the hotel in the basement or other cool, dark place. (Ours is in an unused dog kennel in the basement within its surround).

Within a day or two you should be able to look along the sides of your hotel and see the guests making tunnels and doing other wormy things.

Refresh the salad for the worms each evening and spritz with water at the same time. Try to limit the amount of time you expose the guests to the light. They don't like it! And is that any way to treat a guest?

HINT FOR FINDING WORMS: Early in the day, before it gets hot, run your garden hose on one spot in the lawn next to a sidewalk until the ground is saturated. At a certain point, the worms will come to the surface to get away from the water. Get a good grip on 'em ... they are wily, slippery little guys.

KNITTING? OH, YEAH. THAT.

I suppose I've been knitting a few things, though I haven't acheived finish-age on many since the silent auction extravaganza. I have put the striped Simply Shetland wrap aside for the moment, as we have no A/C and it's been warmish this week.

I started the Harebell Lace Fichu from Victorian Lace Today, and found it extremely challenging. (When they say "Experienced" they mean it). That is on hold until the mood takes me again, or until I turn brilliant overnight. My friend Karen finished hers in a few weeks and was wearing it already, Ms. Smarty-Pants.

I mostly finished a sort-of pair of Mermaid Socks (or at least my take on them) from Cool Socks Warm Feet by Lucy Neatby. See the picture above when it's posted. In so doing, I re-injured my sock-knitting overuse injury, which results in a very sore and bunched-up trapezius muscle. So I have been taking it pretty easy for a few weeks trying to let that calm down.

However, I did start a KPS neck-down cardigan. I'm going to put a hood and pockets on it, and put a zipper in. I'm doing it in cranberry Fantasy Naturale. Sort of a classic Red Hooded Sweatshirt deal.

AND ... I actually have a day off at Borealis that coincides with a class that's being taught by Arnhild Hillesland. I'll be learning about Norwegian Mittens. I've done these before, but because I'm self-taught, I look forward to doing them the "real" way.

Happy Summer Solstice!

Too many stripes

No pictures ... read on ...

I "misunderestimated" how long it would take me to finish the excessively stripey baby cardigan for the silent auction at my favorite 5-year-old's school, so I was madly working on it till 5:30 the day of the auction. The auction started at 5:00. Oops. I did finish it, though, and people bid on it, and it made money for the school.

Because I had to rush out the door, I didn't take any pictures of it or the other things I made, as I'd planned. So a lame description will have to suffice:

The cardigan was "Lily the Green" from one of the Sublime baby books, a bolero with stripes of lime, pink, white, and sage, and a sweet striped garter border and ruffle around the lower edge. I estimate I had to weave in about 200 ends because of all the stripes. I wish I'd knit it in one piece up to the armholes! And for the ruffle, you start with 80-some stitches, and end up with 240, so that took a bit more knitting than I'd planned time for -- duh.

I knit two coordinating hats, one lime with a pink/sage garter border, and one pink with a white stripe and a hemmed picot edge. All in all, the ensemble was incredibly sweet and it was hard to let go of. I am trying very hard not to start another one. Although I didn't enjoy making it, I know now what I'd do different and better, so it's tempting to start.

I also make a Lola baby bolero (Schaefer Yarns' Lola) in vivid turquoise/lime. And I knocked off a quick hat in Bella Color cotton, which was on sale at Borealis so it cost me next to nothing, and earned the school $15.

I will post some pictures of some random things next time!

The Latest Stripes

That's a Stripe of a Different Color

Drug of Choice

Crack cocaine and methamphetamine have nothing on Jamieson's Shetland Double Knitting yarn, my new drug of choice. And my favored method of administration is the Sonoma Mountain Wrap. I can't put the thing down. The Woven Stitch seems to be in harmony with my natural rhythm, a rocking motion that's soothing and mesmerizing. And the yarn flows through my hands like buttah.

Whenever I am tempted to put the project down, I think: No... just one more stripe! The colors are so rich. The designer, Carol Lapin, has put the colors next to each other in ingenious and varied ways. Each time a color appears, it appears next to a different color than it did the last time. My especial favorites so far are Purple Heather/Peat and Olive/Seaweed. Ooooooooh. Ahhhhhh.

Knitting Advice: Fear Not

I sometimes tell my students: Don't be afraid of your knitting. New knitters are understandably nervous about dropped stitches and other mistakes. It only makes sense; if you don't know how something works, and don't know how to fix it, mistakes are alarming. But really, it's only knitting, and no lives are at stake. So get in there and dig around and see if you can figure out why that goofy stitch doesn't look like the others. See if you can get that dropped stitch back on the needle. And if you can't figure it out, ask for help. The only true knitting disasters involve scissors, fire, ink, and family members who help out by putting your heirloom 100% wool sweater in the washing machine on "heavy duty/hot/hot".

The beauty of knitted fabric is that it's flexible and forgiving. When sewing a seam, if you're a stitch or two off, you can easily fudge by stretching one piece slightly to fit it to the other. If you slipped a stitch somewhere instead of knitting it, chances are its hundreds or thousands of close friends and neighbors will draw attention away from it.

If you're seeking perfection, knitting is not the place to find it. You could end up knitting and re-knitting forever, and then your yarn would look like hell anyway. So, if it looks good, it is good, and no one need be the wiser about those little unexpected embellishments.

New Word

And, finally, thanks to Ms. Not-Morris, who brought a wonderful new word into my life: Poopstitch.

Sonoma Mountain Wrap

It's a sickness; I need help

Out (of mind) with the old, in with the new

In my last post, I said that my coworkers' hyperproductivity was making me feel like I need to finish some of the projects I've started.

"Feel like" is the key phrase.

Well, I felt like it. Didn't do it.

Instead, I started some new things. I get a pass on one of the things; it's a baby bolero for the silent auction fundraiser at my favorite 5-year-old's school. The other is sheer indulgence. It's the Sonoma Mountain Wrap from Simply Shetland 2. It's in a delirious range of colors of Jamieson's Shetland DK. I knit the first 4 stripes on Easter Sunday. Well, Easter is a time of renewal, is it not?

The wrap is in Linen Stitch, which is:

Row 1: K1, *sl 1 wyif, K1*, end with sl1 wyif
Row 2: P1, *sl1 wyib, P1* end with sl1 wyib.

Now, some people find Linen Stitch putzy in the extreme, but I like the rhythm and am actually quite fast at it. It makes a nice dense "woven" fabric. This piece will be my take-along idiot knitting project until it gets too big to drag around. Maybe I can finish it before the weather gets too warm for me to want to knit on it. Oops, there's that word "finish" again.

(After) Thoughts on the Afterthought Heel

I've been re-thinking my toe-up afterthought heel socks. I've knit many pairs of these, and I've taught lots of people to knit them. I have many pairs that fit well. But I think the pattern needs a little refinement.

I have high insteps, so the fact that these socks don't have a gusset makes them a little tight across the instep for me sometimes. I've been fussing with different ways to add some ease across the instep. Often I'll just add some stitches in the instep for a few rows, which helps. But in some yarns the increases really show, and if I'm doing a stitch pattern down the instep, it's not an option.

Another option has been to rib all the way down the top of the sock to the toe. This creates a nice, stretchy fabric, and it's a good solution. But I don't always want ribbed socks, and a smooth fabric looks better with some of the self-patterning yarns.

Another issue I've sometimes had with the Afterthought Heel is that it hasn't been quite deep enough if I start with the heel decreases right away. So I've been playing with knitting 4 rounds or so plain before I start the decreases. This seems to work out OK.

I rather enjoy tinkering with patterns and solving problems. If anyone has any insights on the Afterthought Heel, please leave a comment.

New and Wonderful

Go to Borealis Yarns and see the gorgeous Silk Garden throw on display. It's done in strips, with each strip being a different colorway of Silk Garden. Unbelievably beautiful. The pattern is newly for sale at the store. (Rah, rah -- can't help proselytizing!)

Competitive Knitting

Some of my coworkers are knitting maniacs. I think they secretly have knitting machines in their basements -- or sweatshops. 'The Emotion', as I'll call her, will start a sock at work five minutes before closing, and show up with a complete pair the next morning. 'Coryell' cranks out sweaters in her spare time between making all manner of felted pillows and critters, socks, scarves, felted clogs, Fair Isle hats and mittens, and Goddess knows what else.

I've not been a competitive knitter up till now. I knit things I enjoy working on, and if I finish them, that's a bonus. (Process, process, process!) But all of this hyperproductivity is making me a little jealous. I think I may have to step up my production and (gasp) finish some stuff.

I still, however, am not enthusiastic about putting my goods in the State Fair. I'm not quite sure why. I just don't feel the bug. Now, having said that, maybe I'll put in some mint-green crocheted tissue box covers or something this year.

See my UN-finished Shadow Shawl, below.

Whaaa??

Holy cow, I was just editing my profile on Blogger, and found that my previous profile listed my "industry" as "accounting." Whaaaa?

When I went to change it, there was no selection in the drop-down menu for "lazy hussy", so I had to choose "arts" as the closest thing.

Shadow Shawl #3

Oy Vey

Here's the latest shadow shawl I've started. (I did actually finish one last year, but this and another one are still in the cooker). I found a juicy skein of Schaefer Yarns' Anne at the store, and snatched it up quicker than you can say "Jeepers creepers, more YARN?". Though I didn't NEED to make another Shadow Shawl, it was crying out to be combined with Euroflax linen.

I had to go to a size 2 (US) needle, as the Euroflax is heavier than the Anne, and was pulling and distorting it, making the stitches uneven and loopy. The fabric is nice and firm (but still fluid) on a 2. However, the shawl may turn out small because of the smaller needles, so if I find I'm going to run out of yarn, I may do the center 'V' in the brilliant blue Rio de la Plata sock yarn (pictured along with the shawl, the Euroflax, and the Anne.)

And ... I'm on Ravelry now as 'carolfiona'. I don't have much listed yet -- it will take time to catalogue the many, many projects I have going -- but I'm enjoying reading about other peoples' stuff and especially seeing their "ughs". Boy, do I have lots of "ughs" I can put out there! But it might damage my image as Knit Coach!

Pictures!

Sock Success

I reorganized, sorted, and labeled my stash the other day, and found quite a few pairs of socks that had been abandoned in varying stages of completion. Some needed only heels, some needed only toes, some needed to be ripped back to the site of a boo-boo, and I had just gotten bored with some of them in mid-sock.

I decided to finish as many of them as I could. Here are some of them in glorious color.

I'm still trying to figure out how to add captions to my photos on the blog, so if I don't succeed, the socks pictured are (in no particular order): OnLine sock (hint: still on needles), pink Smooshy sock (Waterfall Rib and Eye of Partridge heel from More Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch), Mystery Sock (the sort of yellow one; I have no memory of buying this yarn, no memory of what yarn it is, and I haven't any idea if I have the rest of the yarn so I can knit the second sock), turquoise Fair Isle sock (done in an Opal colorway from years ago; I also have no idea where the rest of the yarn is to make a second sock. In the meantime I've been wearing it with the Mystery Sock), Tofuttsies sock (pink / blue heel and toe), and Corn Sock (cream-colored Maizy corn yarn).

And the strange red object is the Little Ruff from One-Skein Wonders. I made it out of Louisa Harding's Grace (silk and wool, 22 sts /in.) Grace is a little light for the gauge called for in the pattern, so I added some sts to the ruffle portion and did extra short rows to account for the extra sts. I needed more than one ball of Grace to finish it, given the gauge difference. I don't know if this picture does it justice. It's gorgeous. And I found the perfect button for it at Treadle Yard Goods in St. Paul.

Some notes on the various socks and yarns:

OnLine is one of my favorites of the self-patterning sock types. The yarn knits up smoothly without splitting, the space-dyeing is crisp (with some space-dyed yarns you find areas that were missed by the dye; not so with OnLine), and it makes a pleasing fabric on US size 1.5.

I'm still having a major jones for Dream In Color's Smooshy sock yarn. As I have often said, "It knits like buttah". And there are some juicy new colors that just came in.

The Mystery Sock yarn may be Koigu. I'm sure I bought it many years ago (hence the sketchy memory), well before I worked at a yarn store. The yarn itself feels like Louet Gems, but I don't recognize the colorway. Anyway, it knitted up nicely on a US 1.5, and it feels soft on my feet (or foot, as I only have the one sock.) I'm sure there's no nylon in it. If anyone recognizes the colorway, I'd like to know what you think it is.

Opal is another of my all-time favorites. I have Opal socks I knit 7 years ago that haven't worn out yet -- and I wear my handknit socks a lot. The very first pair of Opal socks I knit are still intact, though I can see that the toes are getting a little thin. Opal's a little pricier than some of the self-patterning yarns out there, but for me, it's well worth the little extra money. If I wanted to save money, I'd buy the 12-pack of white tube socks at Wal-Mart. And wouldn't that be a fashion statement?

I bought the Tofuttsies at a yarn store in California while visiting my sister. It sounded interesting, as it's made with soy, wool, and crab shells. It knits up very soft, although I did have some issues with splitting, as the strand is made up of several different-colored plies. I haven't worn the socks enough to report on how they wear long-term, but they feel fine. I wish I hadn't used heel-and-toe reinforcement, though. It made the heels and toes feel thick and clumpy. I don't usually use it, and probably won't in the future unless I have good reason.

I haven't yet worn the Maizy sock, as its mate is still half-finished. Not that I'm afraid to wear odd socks (see above!), but I have plenty of other crazy single socks to wear. I want to keep the Maizys together as a pair, so I can see how the yarn wears. It knits up extrememly soft. One person I talked to said her Maizy socks made her feet sweat. I'm reserving judgement till I can see for myself. The yarn was OK to knit with, though somewhat splitty. It has some stretchy stuff in it, but that didn't pose a problem for me while I was knitting it. I'll report more on Maizy when I've worn and washed the socks 4 or 5 times.

As for the neck ruffle, Grace by Louisa Harding is a luscious yarn, but very delicate. I had been drooling over it for a year, trying to figure out what to make with it. I wouldn't knit something that gets much wear, as it pills quickly and looks dull and ratty. I figured, though, that a ruffled collar would work well, as it isn't subjected to flinging about, as you would do with a scarf, nor to rubbing, as with, say, sweater sleeves that rub against the body as you move around. It was fun to knit, and fairly quick, too.

And as a final note, I've strayed into Crochet Madness once again and am planning to make some Amigurumi. These are small, painfully cute crocheted stuffed animals. I'll be working from Amigurumi World: Seriously Cute Crochet by Ana Paula Rimoli. I'm also going to crochet a little girl's dress from the latest issue of Katia. I found a great crochet manual, A to Z Crochet published by Martingale. It has wonderful, clear step-by-step photographs, and illustrates all kinds of stitches and techniques. And I snagged a copy of The Crocheter's Handy Guide to Yarn Requirements by Ann Budd. I use my Knitter's Handy Guide, etc. all the time, and since I'm a crochet neophyte, this will be invaluable. You need these books!

And ... if you are in the store, look for the outrageous pink "scrunchie" ruffle I crocheted for my coworker's coffee tumbler. She needed something to distinguish hers from all the other J&S Bean Factory coffee tumblers. (Love that place! Best coffee in the Twin Cities!) Let me just say I finally found a use for that 1/2 ball of pink Crystal Palace "Party" ribbon yarn. If you want a Coffee Scrunchie of your own:

Crochet a chain long enough to fit around the coffee vessel of your choice when slightly stretched (the crochet chain, not your coffee mug.) Join into a round with a slip st. Ch 1.

SC in every ch around and when the round is finished, slip st to 1st SC, then Ch 1.

Now, SC 4 times in each SC around. Join with slip st., ch 1.

Next round: SC 4 times in each SC around (this is a lot more sts than you might think!), join with slip st, fasten off. Weave in ends.

Use your imagination

Still no pictures ...

My camera is still dead, so you will have to use your imagination as you read about my projects.
Maybe by the time I actually finish something, I will have a new camera.

I am knitting a few things for a silent auction at my favorite 5-year-old's Montessori school, so the other day I knit a sweet baby bolero in Schaeffer Yarns' Lola in turquoise/green. Think hard and picture it here _____________. I still have to sew it together, which I will probably characteristically leave till the very last minute.

She shoots she scores!

I was very frustrated when I found I was a few yards short of a sleeve (is that like being two slices of baloney short of a sandwich?), and I was about to adjust the pattern to have 3/4 sleeves, when a deep urge to organize my stash took hold. I went through every tub, bin, bag, and box, sorted and labeled, and trashed yarn with abandon. I had skeins of stuff that had apparently come to me from aliens, because I didn't recognize it no matter how long I puzzled over it. My mantra became, "Hate it, don't want it, won't use it, hate it, hate it" and I shoved ugly and alien yarns into a big bag, which I then lofted into the garbage bin with a resounding, um, well not a "crash" exactly, but at least an "umph". Ahhhhhhh.

Having purged thusly, I organized yarn into projects-in-progress (a shocking number), yarn awaiting projects (even more shocking), sock yarn (ouch), socks in progress (so that's why I keep buying two new sets of Addi Turbo size 1 every other week), leftovers, and Other. And then ... SCORE! I found three balls of yarn in the color I needed to complete my truncated sleeve. Never mind that I'd bought the yarn to do a different project. That project was so far on the back burner that it fell behind the stove anyway. Not only that, but I found the errant ball of Lola I was looking for to make yet another baby sweater for the auction.

So, life is good. And organized. And as long as I never touch my stash again, nor bring any new yarn home, it will stay organized in perpetuity.

Ha.

Good intentions, sock surgery

Good Intentions vs. The Plague

Despite all my good intentions, I haven't blogged for a while. I have had The Plague for over three weeks -- don't ask. But I think I am finally getting better.

My camera is still dead (as is Generalissimo Francisco Franco), so still no pictures. They would be a sorry sight if I had any.

Sock Surgery

Maybe it was starting the sock when I was coming down with The Plague. Or maybe it was sheer air-headedness. At any rate, I knit a whole toe-up sock with the exception of the Afterthought Heel I was going to put in, and found it was too small. I swear, I tried it on multiple times as I was knitting it, and I thought it was firm, but not tight. (Something I wish I was.) Well, it was tight. I could just barely get the ribbing over my instep.

No problem, I thought. I'll just undo the cast-off and redo it more loosely. I did this, with a bigger needle. Still too tight. So I pulled it out once again, and, with a much bigger needle, knit another inch on the leg of the sock, finishing off with a looooooose bindoff. It still only barely made it over my instep.

Still no problem, I thought. I'll put in the heel, then see how everything fits. I did this, and the sock was very tight over my instep (I have high insteps, but I usually don't have a problem with this style sock).

Still no problem, I thought, smiling hopefully through gritted teeth. I carefully snipped one thread in the instep (a la Elizabeth Zimmerman's Afterthought Pocket method -- check it out, it's cool) and unraveled it almost all the way across the instep in both directions. I'll just put in an instep gusset, I thought with uncharacteristic optimism.

Well, maybe it was the fact that I was into the full-blown Plague by this point, or maybe it was that I'd already been working on the sock all day, or maybe it was simply not thinking it through well enough. But the instep gusset looked more like an instep growth. I tried it both with short rows and with increases, but it still looked like a tree fungus.

Fine, I thought. I'll steek the sock up the front. What have I got to lose at this point? This is where I should have stepped away from the knitting. Surely I was fevered at this point because I really do know better; when you do a steek, you have to secure the edges in some way, e.g., with a facing. (Not, I think, Fray Check). Once I'd made the fatal cut, I realized my error almost immediately.

OK, I thought, I will just cut off the foot of the sock below the heel and re-knit it on a bigger needle. This would have worked, except that after a few rows (having cut off the foot) I realized I was sick of the yarn, sick of the sock, that I hated it and never wanted to see it again, much less wear it. Most certainly, I would never knit the second sock. So, into the trash it went and good riddance too. (See my previous post for discussion of same.)

After the sock incident, I swore off knitting for a few days while I took to the couch with blankets and tissues. Then, yesterday, my confidence back, I thought I would finish a bolero I'd been knitting for my favorite five-year-old. I'd started it in the fall, and figured I'd better finish it while it was still the season to wear it.

I'd left off when I ran out of yarn from the previous ball, so I picked up the new ball and picked up the armhole stitches, then knit about two inches on the sleeve. And realized the new ball of yarn was a different color than the rest of the sweater. Not just a different dye lot -- a different color. The sweater is a heathered brown. The last ball was a solid chocolate.

Being a calm person, I decided instead to work on a spring bolero for the same child. She'd been asking, just that morning, when I was going to finish it. I quickly located the project, but the pattern was nowhere to be found. I flung some yarn tubs about looking for it, and succeeded only in tiring myself out and hurting my back.

No problem, I thought. (Do you detect a pattern here?) I will just start the Schaefer Victorian Baby Jacket that I need to make in preparation for a class I'll be teaching. I cast on 188 stitches in Anne (a fine fingering weight made by Schaefer) on size 3 needles. The first two rows went swimmingly, since they were stockinette. The third row, the beginning of the lace pattern, did not go well. I ended up with two extra stitches, despite handfuls of markers and careful attention to the pattern. I tried to identify my mistake, something I'm normally quite good at (especially with simple lace patterns like this one), and couldn't find it.

No problem, I thought. I will just tink back and surely I'll find the problem. I did not find the problem, but I succeeded in dropping a few stitches while undoing the Slip 1, K2tog, PSSOs. These dropped stitches went all the way down to the cast-on.

I ripped everything off the needles, broke off the used yarn (this same section of yarn had been used for a previous project I'd abandoned because I didn't like how the lace looked in the particular colorway, and it was looking pretty tired.) I was pretty tired myself and took to the couch with blankets and tissues.

Moral of the story: If you knit when you're sick, and it starts going all pear-shaped on you, stop. Do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars. Lie down and watch reruns of I Love Lucy.

Catching up / New Year's advice

The holidays were great, but I'm happy to be on the other side of them. I've had enough cookies, candies, rich meals, and other gastronomic overages to last me for another year. (And I have the enhanced waistline to prove it.) I wish there were such a thing as aerobic knitting.

My camera has died after a long illness. It is survived by me, dozens of special friends, and a bunch of pictures. While I am waiting until I can get a new camera, you will have to use your imagination to envision the projects I describe. Besides, they were mostly boring lately:

I knit a bunch of things over the holidays, but most of them were hats, scarves, and the like that I gave as gifts. I knit several more two-color brioche scarves. (They're good enough, they're smart enough, and doggone it, people like them.) I knit another moebius for my mother. I finally put the fringe on a scarf I'd knitted for my sister last year.

The only thing I completed that was slightly interesting was the "Caplet", as my sister dubbed it. The Caplet is my own take on the Dubbelmossa hat, the two-layer hat that is essentially one hat inside the other, with the hats being joined at the brim edge. When it is opened up, with the top of one hat at one end and the top of the other hat at the opposite end, and the line of demarcation in the middle, it looks like a giant Tylenol capsule.

I made the Caplet by starting with a provisional cast-on (I used the knit-up-stitches-in-a-crochet-chain method), then I knit the first hat normally. Then I took out the provisional cast-on, picked up those stitches, and knit the other hat identically. I experimented with a YO, K1 turning row at the border between the two hats, hoping to get a picot edge, but the yarn I used (Cascade's DiVe Autumno) was too thick to show the picot. Next time, I'll do a purl row for a turning row. I was concerned about finishing off the top of the second hat, as at that point I didn't have access to the wrong side to weave in the ends, but I was able to take the yarn tail around in several circles at the top and it looks just fine.

Knitting advice for 2008: Be Fearless!

I meet a lot of people in classes and help sessions, and I have never met anyone who can't knit. I have met a lot of people who think they can't knit, or think they can't understand a pattern, or think they can't master a certain technique.

We are often afraid to try something because we think we might fail. I've avoided lots of things for this reason. And it's true, you might fail. Or you might find you don't like it. Or you might find you can do it, but prefer not to. Or that it's too much work. But it's rarely the case that you can't do it.

And anyway, it's just yarn, right? It's just knitting. No lives are at stake. If you feel severely displeased with something you've worked on, you can unravel it, hide it in a closet, give it away, or -- gasp -- throw it in the trash. I have trashed several projects, including an Aran sweater that was 3/4 finished. But by the time I was to that point, I realized the yarn I'd chosen wasn't very high quality (I hadn't been knitting very long, and didn't know much about choosing yarn), and the gauge was way off, to the point that the sweater would have been suitable for a man over 6'5" tall with very big shoulders. I kept it a few years while I was mourning, then I popped it in the dumpster. I learned a lot from that project, and I'm not sorry I spent time on it. The next Aran sweater I made was very lovely and I wear it all the time.

What's the worst that can happen? You can spend (I don't like to say "waste") some time and money that don't result in a piece that you can use for the intended purpose. But if you enjoy knitting, time spent knitting can't be considered to be wasted. And money, well ... if we were in this to save money, we wouldn't do it. (And it's better than buying pulltabs). And you almost always learn from every project, even if all you learn was that you chose an inappropriate yarn and didn't check your gauge well enough.

Be creative with your unexpected results (I don't like to say "failures"). If what you've knit is feltable, felt it, cut it into pieces, and make something out of it -- felt flowers, a cell phone holder, a purse, a haggis* caddy, or whatever fun or outrageous thing you can imagine.

Use it as a test swatch to try out new techniques. Make it into a doll blanket. Or call it art and hang it on the wall. Give it to the Goodwill if it's wearable. Give the yarn to the Goodwill if it's not. You get the idea.

Why not make 2008 the year you become a Fearless Knitter?

*Haggis is the traditional Scottish dish composed of such things as lamb parts** and barley, and cooked in a sheep's bladder. These days they use the better parts of the lamb and cook it in something more appealing, and it's delicious. But historically it was a way to use up all the bits and pieces of a sheep so they didn't go to waste, and the family didn't starve.

** Lips, innards*** and other unmentionables.

*** I would bet this is the only knitting blog that has ever mentioned lips and innards.