In Which I Stick my Knitting in the Bushes

As it is a fine (if blistering hot) day outside, I succumbed to the find knitterly tradition of posing my work among the flora. Here we have two fine specimens, one of which is not completely knitting-related.

This was the last week of school for me, and Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were half days. We got out at 11:45 on those days, and Mom took me out to lunch on Wednesday.

After we ate, we took a look around the Goodwill Emporium near the restaurant. In the back, amongst the boxes and baskets, I spied a hatbox. I was immediately enthralled, owing to a slight obsession with hatboxes since childhood. I picked it up and thought, 'My, what a heavy hatbox. I wonder if there's a hat in it!' There wasn't. Instead, there was another box, slightly smaller but of the same design. I took out the second box and opened it up, to find yet another box. I was positively giddy as I separated the succession of boxes (yes, marvel at my large vocabulary). It was like a set of Russian nesting dolls, which I have also always liked.

In the end, I got a set of four boxes for -get this- Fifteen dollars and one cent. Yes, the price tag actually said $15.01. I have no idea why. But what a score! I will, of course, be using them for yarn storage.
The yarn in there now is KnitPicks Shine Sport in Hollyberry, 14 balls of it. This I have purchased for a cardigan called Rusty. It's pretty obscure, but you can find it on Ravelry.
Another thing I have succumbed to: Monkey socks! I wish I had broken down long ago, this pattern is enchanting, and so is the finished object.

The changes I made were to add a picot hem at the top, knit one less repeat of the lace pattern for the legs, and do a slip stitch heel to make them last longer.
Yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, colorway "Huron."

Here we have a skein of merino that I dyed in the wool with food coloring, then spun up into a sport-ish 2ply. It's pretty well balanced, though it is rather loosely plied (this yarn was a pain in the ass to ply, and I think it's not my best work because I was so frustrated with it pretty much from the get-go).
Blankie pix! I've been working on it a lot lately, and it shows. Seen here lounging on the grass in our backyard:
(I feel morally obligated to tell you that not all of our grass is this pretty.)

What is this? A strange growth in the bush?

No, it's just my spindle, and some lovely roving from Shunklies, an Etsy store. Colorway is called "Monsters Inc." except for the pink which is from another batch of her roving.
I've really got a lot more single, but I've taken to winding it off onto the swift when the spindle starts getting too heavy with it.

Yet more succumbing: Magic loop and KnitPicks Harmony needles! What I've got here is a 40'' fixed circular in US size 0 that I got specifically to try out magic loop. The yarn is Trekking XXL in color 145, which I have been stalking since Christmas. I finally found it in a very nice shop called Charlotte Yarn, naturally located in Charlotte, NC.

My Forest Path Stole is coming along nicely after a brief hiatus, but you can't see it now since it's packed away for me to take on my trip. Me, the small ones, and my dad are leaving on Tuesday for a train trip along the northern border of the US. We'll be withing spitting distance of Canada most of the time, and the cool weather will be a nice relief from the depths of Hades (aka South Carolina).

We're taking the train from Chicago to Seattle, then renting a car and driving northwest a couple hours until we get to the very corner of the country, where my dad's parents live. We'll spend a few days visiting with them, sightseeing, and maybe pop into Canada for a day.

I really hope we'll get to Canada, so I can get some All Dressed chips. If you haven't had these, try them! There a type of potato chips from the Ruffles brand, and they have all the chip flavors (barbecue, salt and vinegar, etc) on one chip. It sounds disgusting, but it's actually really good, and you can only get them in Canada. Well you could have them shipped, but it would cost you and arm and a leg.

So now I have something kind of gross to show you. Last weekend (keep that date in mind) I was at my dad's house, where me and Thing 1 have bunk beds. I, being to oldest, get the top bunk. It's pretty nice, except when you fall out of it and hit the hard floor like I did on Friday night. I'm sure it hurt, but I didn't notice because I somehow managed to bang my elbow very hard on something on the way down. It left a mark. Look away now if your are the queasy type!

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This is what it looks like a week after the fact. And yes, it still hurts like hell.

So I'm going on a 10-day trip starting Tuesday, and when I get back I'll have a whopping day and a half to recover before hauling myself off to camp for a week.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

Can you hear it? It's the sound of the clock, tick-tocking away the seconds until I go see the Yarn Harlot in Charlotte!!! I am so incredibly psyched!!

Remember that mass of wool that I promised would be a bag someday? Well, that day is today!! Well, I actually felted it a couple days ago, but that's not important.
I was a little worried it would turn out really wide and shallow, but It's pretty darn near perfect. I threw it in the wash and hopped on Ravelry, intending to go check on it in about 5 minutes, but you know the hypnotic time-sucking powers of Ravelry, and I completely forgot about it until the end of the wash cycle.
A closeup of the stripes at the botton. Note to self: no more 2-row stripes for felted things.

I finished the waffle rib sock I was working on at Steeplechase, and I'm quite pleased with it.
The waffle rib is incredibly simple; all you do is alternate 2 rows of stockinette and 2 rows of 2x2 rib.
I haven't started the other one yet, it's going to come with me to Charlotte.

After a brief hiatus, I picked up the Forest Path Stole again and finished the lower border and all 5 lower triangles. I found stockinette entrelac quite easy, but seed stitch entrelac can be rather tricky.
I did a lot of spinning this weekend, too (no, that up there is not what I consider "a lot." I've got a whole other single sitting on my swift). This merino is a little tougher to spin than my brown Romney, since it's so slippery. My single keeps breaking, though part of that is the weight of the spindle. I think for yarn this fine and fiber this slippery, I really need a smaller, lighter spindle. Or a wheel, but I'm not getting one of those any time soon.

I am once again forced to face the fact that I live in South Carolina, where it is not uncommon to reach 100 degrees Farenheight in the summer (though on those days, instead of putting on socks, I think I might just lay naked on the floor praying for a lightning strike). I only have one or two pairs of socks with less than 50% wool in them, but this yarn that my mom got me is only 40%. It's Marks & Kattens Clown, 45% cotton, 40% superwash wool, 15% nylon. The colorway is #1908, and I'm just tickled with the way it's striping and speckling. Sorta rough in the skein, but I reckon it'll soften in the wash.
I threw in a 4-stitch cable on either side of the foot, to make it take longer to knit than my usual stockinette. That's one method of stretching a yarn budget: knit slowly.

I added a couple of squares to the Blankie, but nothing worth taking a picture of.

A field trip (in which my knitting gets out and sees the world)

Saturday was Steeplechase, a day of horse races that's a really huge deal around here. Our local newspaper says there were around 35,000 people there this year. Of course, the point of going is not to watch the horses, but to hang out and show off your fancy clothes. Kind of like high-class tailgating.

We got there around 10:00 and set up our tent and table with chips, cheesecake, baked beans, and the usual tailgating munchies (plus some wierd pasta salad that Tita made). We brought along my three best boys Patrick, Tyler, and Jeremy, and had a grand old time walking around and people-watching. I knit a little bit...
...during the few dull moments, on a sock in hand-dyed KnitPicks Bare Essentials. The astute among you may notice that I'm shaking things up a bit with a waffle rib instead of my usual stockinette.

Funny story: Last year at Steeplechase, there was a huge group of drunken college kids in the spot next to us. Now we have a railside spot which is bigger than most, but not big enough for 30-40 drunken college kids. All day they were slowly creeping over to our space and we were getting pretty fed up. Eventually we had the fantastically genius idea to use some of my yarn (black acrylic) to make a barrier and discourage potential invaders. The funny part?

It was still there this year.

In other news, I finally got my package of leftover sock yarn from Shelly!
(Darling that she is threw in some little chocolates.) I got right to work, and now all the squares at the bottom edge of the Blankie are joined together.
This blankie is kinda sorta maybe a little huge. Well, not exactly huge in blankie terms, but bigger than I thought it was going to be. I'm okay with that, though, because I always did want it to be big enough to cover a bed.

First time posting a video, took forever but I knew you guys would love it!

(Tyler and Patrick doing a Man Hug)

Spring in My Step

Finished the socks with my hand-dyed self-striping yarn!
I luvs them to death. I just can't get over the stripes, it's like a magic trick. I decided that for this pair, I really did care if they matched. Only had to give up a couple yards of yarn, and the stripes are perfectly aligned.

One thing that was rather aggravating, though, was the heels. I didn't want to interrupt the striping sequence, so I originally planned to do Elizabeth Zimmermann's Afterthought Heel. Started at the toe of the first socks, knit my way merrily up the foot until the place I'd usually start the short-row heel, but instead knitted in a bit of waste yarn that I could take out later and have live stitches for the heel.

Halfway up the leg, however, I decided that I really didn't like the look of an afterthought heel and that I would just do a short row heel, accepting the fact that it would take a bit of grafting. So after I finished the leg(sewn bindoff, a la EZ once again), I picked out the waste yarn and put the live stitches back on the needles. Working from the other end of the ball of yarn, I started short-rowing on the lower half of those live stitches, then Kitchenered the other side of the heel to the upper half of the original live stitches. (Sorry if this doesn't make a lick of sense to some of you, I once again prove myself a moron by forgetting to take pictures of this process.)

So now that I knew I didn't want an afterthought heel, and was even more firmly resolved to have a matching pair of socks, I took a different route on the second sock. Heel and foot as usual, but when I got to the heel, I just knit it as usual, but from the other end of the ball of yarn. Once the heel was done, I just cut the yarn and picked up where I left off with the foot.

(I swear they really are the same size) I can't really tell the difference. The only way I found to distinguish was to turn them inside out and very closely examine the stitches. I think the one on the right is the first one, with all the grafting, but I'm certainly not willing to bet.

Aside from knitting for just a moment, I must introduce my newest obsession:

Yes, it's yogurt. Thick & Creamy Key Lime Pie yogurt! Empty, unfortunately. However, my saint mother went to the grocery store today and we have a lot more in the fridge. I am very likely to have another tonight and will definitely have another in the morning.

Well the first hints of spring are finally in the air down in South Carolina, and lemme tell ya, it couldn't come soon enough for me. (In general) I like cold weather more than hot weather, but I am so sick of winter right now. After Christmas, and down here where we don't have snow or anything, winter is just not fun anymore.

I am responding to the spring "make things" vibe by buying stuff, namely yarn. Yesterday I ordered 2 skeins of undyed sock yarn and 3 skeins of undyed laceweight from KnitPicks, and a pattern to go with the laceweight(the Forest Path Stole, since you asked) from The Alpaca Yarn Company. It's an Interweave pattern, but the issue is sold out and I'm not going to pay $16 for The Best of Interweave Knits when the shawl is one of only 2 or 3 pattern in it that I like.

Also, right after I finish typing this, I'm going to order some undyed merino top from Hello Yarn. After I dye it up, it'll help satisfy my urge to spin something other than my plain brown romney.

I'll have a lot of mail to look forward to for the next few weeks, including the package from Shelly(the Heathen Housewife, see sidebar since I can't get the links right on this blog). You may have heard of Shelly and her sock yarn blanket. If not, go see it right now, it's amazing. She just finished last week(or maybe the week before) and still has leftovers. She said on her blog that she'd love to give them away to anyone else knitting a sock yarn blankie, and I am one of the 6 or so people who responded. I sent her my address a few days ago and I can't wait to see what she sends me!

An end, and a few beginnings

I'm not completely sure, but I think that Friday was the first day in over a year and a half that I have not knitted. chirp chirp. Yes, really. It kind of jolted me when I realised. But considering the circumstances, one can hardly blame me.



My Dearest Love and I had planned to go to a concert on Friday afternoon/evening, and he was going to pick me up from school. At least, that's what I thought. I waited for him for almost an hour before Tita came and got me. On the way back to the house, DL called and said that there had been a mix-up, he thought that he was supposed to come get me at my house, not school. I had been kinda freaking out before, but I calmed down and he came and got me in about 15 minutes.



The concert was over an hour away from us, and it lasted until 10:00 at night. We were smart and hopped out during the last song, so as to beat the traffic and avoid being out until 1:00 in the morning or later. As it was, we got back to my house shortly after 11:00 and bid our goodbyes (yes, I am using fancy words to peak your interest and keep you awake). I was exhausted, and went right to bed, not realising until the next morning that I had not knitted a single stitch the previous day. For the absolute most ironic part, read a little further.



Another end, this time a completely welcome one:

An end to this dresser's occupancy of my room.



I've known this house since before the lot was cleared. We were living just 2 doors down at the time, and my mom's parents had this house built so they could be closer to us. My room used to be a guest room, and it has always had this same stinking dresser. But not anymore.



No more, because me and Mom went to IKEA on Saturday and got a bunch of stuff, among which was,

My fabulous new dresser/bookshelf. Clothes are along the bottom, and the rest is mostly books and space for future stash storage. Go to my flickr page (KnitWize there too) for full details.

Another beginning,

My first entrelac! I made this using a tutorial I found via Ravelry. I don't remember exactly where, but just go to Patterns and search for "entrelac tutorial" and you'll find it. The steps are accompanied by pictures, and it's all in very simple terms. If you're a little nervous about trying entrelac, this is the way to go. It's really very easy, even if there are kind of a lot of steps.

Socks for Thing 1, toe-up in TOFUtsies.

More socks for Thing 1, this time for her birthday. She had full knowledge of the other pair, but this is secret. She's seen these, loves them to death actually, but I told her they were for me. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep doing that, but for now it's a wonderful system.

I knit these socks top-down, in KnitPicks Bare Essentials that I dyed with food coloring. I knit them top-down because I did a picot hem, and didn't want to have to sew it down. Still did a short-row heel, though.

These socks actually are for me, once again it KnitPicks Bare essentials. I am so tickled by the stripes!

Yet another beginning, and an end too, I guess.

All the spinning I've done so far had been using the drop spindle and light brown Romney top wool I got for Christmas. Well apparently my spindle came with a little packet of colorful fiber and a cool pin, but my mom misplaced them and didn't discover them until a few days ago. I spun up the fiber immediately, of course, and I'm thrilled. It's only a tiny amount, and I'm itching for more. The end being the end of my being content with my plain brown Romney.

Being no longer interestd in my plain brown wool, and

Just Call Me 'Jenny'

First off, update on the Blankie of Wonder and Magic:
Yes, it is progressing quite nicely. I want this blankie to be at least big enough to cover a twin bed, and it's already wide enough for that. This is the first time I've measured the width of all the squares together and it's just a hair over 4 ft. I think I'll just add four or five more squares to this row, then start joining them with the next row(they're not attatched in this pic, just laid out in a line).

I got 2 skeins of KnitPicks Bare Essentials for a good bargain from a nice lady on Ravelry, and I dyed one of them with red food coloring last week.

It's a good thing I was aiming for pink, because that's all the red dye we had. I'm knitting it up into socks for Thing 1's birthday. They're top down, since I did a picot hem at the top and didn't want to have to sew it down.
It's very neat, and deceptively simple. I learned the technique from watching Knitty Gritty, and you can find it on their website (diynetwork.com/knittygritty).

The other skein is sitting on my worktable, waiting until I can get some blue food coloring. I'm going to do this one in blue and green stripes, with narrow undyed stripes between them.

So here comes Jenny(extra IQ points to whoever guesses the refference first): The week before last, I decided to try my hand at plying. I haven't done this before because I am dependent on my spindle, and only my spindle. Nothing else. No Lazy Kate, no nothing. So, I had to improvise...

Yes, I know, that's the most ghetto Lazy Kate I've ever seen, too. A cardboard box, 2 knitting needles, a drinking straw and the cardboard spool that a ball of crochet cotton come wound on. But it worked... barely.

Now, I know all you spinners are going to hate me for this, "beginner's luck," you'll say.
This is all I had left on one cough bobbin when I was done. Beginner's luck, that's it.
I am quite proud of my little skein, for all it's faults. It's much more even than any single I've spun yet.
I also tried 3-plying, by the Navajo method. I didn't need the Ghetto Lazy Kate for that, but I did have to wind the single onto my umbrella swift to hold it while winding the plied yarn back onto the spindle.
Not as even, but far more even than the single was.

Immortality-- sort of

An interesting thougt occured to me last night at around 12:20 am (having stayed up until midnight reading blogs) that concerned the sock blankie: Socks are not a permanent thing in any way. If you use them right, they wear out. But in a blankie, the memory of socks can be immortalized through their leftover yarn. Blankies don't usually wear out if you be nice do them. Cool, huh?

Episode 6: Return of the Knitter

I'm back from my fabulous Wyoming adventure! We did a lot of snowy stuff, ate a lot of good food, but I know what you're here for is the knitting, so I'll cut to the chase.
These are my first toe-up socks, and also my official Wyoming socks, since I bought the yarn in Wyoming, bought the needles in Wyoming, and knit almost all of them in Wyoming. The needles are DPNs in US sizes 1 and 0, and the yarn is Trekking XXL, color 100. I am in love, completely and utterly.

Since they were toe-up, I could make them as tall as I wanted without fear of running out of yarn. They're about 7 1/2" tall from the top of the heel, and I had a suprising amount left over(no pic here, go check out my Ravelry)

This is part of my Christmas present to myself, bought at the same adoreable yarn shop as the other color...
...and this is the rest of my present. From left to right: Clover Takumi bamboo needles, sizes 9, 11, and 13; Clover Takumi bamboo DPNs, size 1, set of 5; Lantern Moon Rosewood Sox Stix, size 0, set of 5.

I've never trusted tiny wood and bamboo needles, not believing that they would stand up to much pressure. But knew I was going to have to start a pair of socks in my luscuious new yarn, and I didn't have any of the right sizes with me(in Wyoming, I mean. They were at home). The store didn't carry any of the right sizes in metal, so I sucked it up and got some. Turns out that they're fine, and I'm in love.
This was part of my present from Mom, a very wise move on her part. I think my favorite is Mason-Dixon, but I love them all.
This is a to-be-felted bag that I took with me to knit on the trip. It's 95% done, and will stay that way for a bit because I need another ball of yarn.
This is a pair of socks I started last week, with the sacred bamboo needles and that grey yarn above.
They're inspired by the Yarn Harlot's rotating rib socks, but I've personalized them and now they're the Cyclone Socks.
Another thing my mom got me was a spindle kit from Hello Yarn, and I've been practicing. It's a simple top-whorl spindle and 8 oz. of Romney top wool. I couldn't get a pic of my first yarn up(check my Ravelry, it's there) but this is my second yarn. My first was expectedly uneven, but my main problem was that the twist was buliding up in the thin bits and leaving the thick bits all fluffy and unspun. I found in my second yarn that if I kept a smaller amount of fiber in my hand, I didn't get the big lumps so much.
I'm still majorly overtwisting, but I'm working on that as we speak.
Like my cotton pyramid? Not exactly a masterpiece, and Sugar n Cream doesn't hold up as well as stone, but... oh well. Pretty soon I'm going to start a set of handtowels for my family, in these colors. The photo's pretty accurate, and it goes with our bathrooms perfectly. I'll keep you posted.
One lonely ball of black cotton, intended for some wristbands. The design I had in mind didn't work out so well, but I'll think of something else.
Finished Blueregard socks, finally. They're been done for a while, but you know me and my fickle ways...