Change of Plans

I bought some Mineville Wool Project Super Sock from Simply Socks. It's available in short runs at a fantastic price, and I really like knitting with it.

I was working on a pair of socks for Andrew, and I noticed that the sock seemed really.... dense. It didn't make sense to me. It was not a weird yarn. It was the needles I typically use. I have knit this pattern before. I mentally shrugged and carried on.

Simple Skyp Socks (mine ravelled here),

knit in Mineville Wool Project Super Sock, Winter Sunrise colorway

We all know how this story ends. The sock was unusually dense. Despite good yardage, I ran out of yarn a few rows before the second toe.

The moral of this story is that sometimes you have to change plans unexpectedly when you thought you were close to the finish of something. So, change plans and move on. It's fine, and it might even be fun.

The Year the Not Knitting Wasn't

I was ready for the Not Knitting. Every January, it seems that I lose the desire to knit. Instead, I read. I've gotten used to it, and it no longer scares me that I'll never want to knit again and will have gajillions of dollars in yarn that I won't use.

I was mentally prepared for it this year. I worked to get physically prepared as well. I checked out extra library books. I bought an embroidery pattern. I read up on British mystery series I might want to watch.

Then this happened:

Christmas Diagonal Ribs (mine ravelled here),

knit in West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 ply in 989 Candy Cane

And then this happened:

Plain Socks (mine ravelled here),

knit in Blue Moon Socks That Rock Lightweight in Wavelength

And now this is happening:

Simple Skyp Socks (mine ravelled here),

knit in Mineville Wool Project Super Sock in Winter Sunrise

Oh well. If the Not Knitting comes late this year, I'll still be ready.

Blues

Some yarn is harder to work with than others. Most of the time, I can figure that out by looking at it and avoid it. Sometimes I can't.

Diagonal Rib Socks (mine ravelled here)

knit in Regia Hand-Dye Effect in 06552

This yarn is splitty, and got VERY thin in sections. I am not a fan, and I'm not sure how they'll wear. The socks look pretty, and the pattern, as always, is great. (I think this is my 10th pair of this pattern. Ann Budd knows what she is doing. I knit mine slightly differently than the pattern, but just because I'm odd and not because there's anything wrong with the pattern.) I'm just grateful to be finished and moving to a yarn that isn't so difficult to work with.

And I'm praying I didn't buy another ball of this, but I'm too scared to check the stash to find out for sure.

Sad Christmas Socks

The Sad Christmas Socks are finished and dry.

Sad Christmas socks (ravelled here),

knit in dyed-by-me Universal Yarn Ready To Dye 

Superwash Merino Sock Weight

They photographed better than they look in person. The red is stronger in the photo. They're not terrible by any means, nor are they what I wanted. Gift knitting!

Happy Christmas Socks

Well, it's been awhile since I've posted. Rather than get bogged down by what I haven't posted about, I'm just going to post what's happening now.

And what's happening now is HAPPY CHRISTMAS SOCKS.

Happy Christmas Socks (mine ravelled here),

knit in Cascade Heritage Solids in 5656 Christmas Green

and Knitpicks Stroll Tonal in Gypsy (discontinued, 

which seems dumb since it's a lovely red)

These are Happy Christmas Socks, as contrasted with Sad Christmas Socks. Those bad boys are still drying, so you'll just have to imagine a striped sock with gray, a too dark almost wine-y red, and a light green. Very sad. Luckily, my mom likes them, so I'll give them to her.

The Sad Christmas Socks are knit out of yarn I dyed myself. I'm currently 4 classes into a 6-class yarn dyeing extravaganza. Self-striping yarn is a pain in the ass to dye. Now I know.*

Sad Christmas Socks are actually attempt #2 at making myself Happy Christmas Socks. The first attempt was equally terrible.** It, too, had colors just off enough to make me yearn for someone who understood that Christmas is bright red and bright green and has nothing at all to do with the color salmon.

Nothing happy has ever had even a passing acquaintance with the color salmon, in my opinion.

The answer, which was obvious as soon as I stopped being lazy, was to stripe it myself. And so I am.

Third time's a charm.

*As if I needed another reason to buy Felici. I have a sickness, and it is stripy.***

**Poor Mom got those socks, too. I wonder if she's just too polite to agree with me when I say I've knit really unattractive socks.

***Oh, for the love of wool, they're having a sale on remaining Felici. I cannot allow myself to order more. I'm two balls away from Crazy Yarn Hoarder.

Socks, socks, socks!

This weekend I finished the requested Hanover socks for a friend's kid who is headed to Hanover as a freshman. When I washed them, I threw another couple pair I finished this summer that are going to be gifts. 

The Hanover socks are 6-row stripes. The leg and top of foot are 3x1 rib.

Hanover socks (mine ravelled here),

knit in Opal 4-ply in 5180 and 5188

A friend requested navy socks. The solid color let me play with a lace pattern I've been wanting to use.

Rose Ribs socks (mine ravelled here),

knit in Cascade Heritage Solids in 5623

Whenever Knitpicks comes out with a new round of Felici colors, I set some aside that I think specific people will like. I think Holly will like these (and I bought some of the same colorway for myself--I'm no dummy).

Baker Street socks (mine ravelled here),

knit in Knitpicks Felici in Baker Street

These are also 3x1 rib. The difference between these and the Hanover socks is that I did a round of k1, sl1 each time there was a color change on the leg and top of foot. It just adds a little more interest, both to the knitting and to the finished socks.

So, does anyone remember back in January when I wrote about being more intentional and allowing myself to not get things done? I'm not going to lie; I don't feel like I'm doing very well at that. I did the Knitsonik mittens, which was a project that took some intention and planning, but I don't feel like I've been successful at addressing my Crazy besides that. I do not lie fallow well. I don't give myself very much space to just be, and I think I'm doing myself a disservice.

In the grand scheme of things, this isn't a huge problem. It's better than a crack habit, for example. I am a work in progress.

And friends get some nice socks as a result.

Stripes All the Time

I'm not sure why everything I've worked on lately is striped, but it has been. I feel fine about that.

Gummy Bear Socks (mine raveled here), 

knit in Knitpicks Felici in the Gummy Bear colorway

Diagonal Ribs (mine raveled here), 

knit in Knitpicks Felici, Fanciful colorway

Turn a Square Hat (mine raveled here), 

knit in leftover Noro Silk Garden in colorway 252 

and Knitpicks Swish Worsted in the Cobblestone Heather colorway

 
And my current project?

Zigzagular Socks (mine raveled here), 

knit in ONline Supersocke 100 in colorway 1317

Stripe on.

Working Up To It

Hand-sewn steeks certainly look tedious.

I did this instead:

Knit in Knitpicks Felici, Gummy Bear colorway (discontinued)

Know When To Walk Away

I'm at an exciting point in the sweater. The sleeves are both on hold until I block everything and am sure of the length I want. It's time for the steek!

I carefully read Kate Davies' tutorials, printed out the directions, and started last night.

And restarted. And restarted. And cursed a little bit. And restarted.

And finally accepted that as I do not know how to crochet very well at all, crocheting the reinforcement for this steek in fingering weight yarn is not going to work for me. Know when to walk away.*

Today I am reading up on handsewn steeks and will try again tonight or tomorrow. In the meantime, I've gone back to something I know how to do to help rebuild my shaken confidence.

*As a child of the '80s, Alvin & the Chipmunks sometimes show up in my brain singing songs that really should be performed by someone else. Anyone else. Case in Point: The Gambler

Things Do Get Finished... Except When They Don't

First, I finished Andrew's socks:

Turner Ribs (mine ravelled here),

knit in Malabrigo Sock Yarn in the 851 Turner colorway

I was skeptical about this yarn, not sure how it would wear. In response, I knit these at a tighter gauge--more stitches, smaller needles. As a result of that and the fact that I worked on them only sporadically when I couldn't bear to work on the Falling Stars sweater, they felt like they took forever. Luckily, I love Andrew very, very much.

Second, Falling Stars continues. I finished the body, sort of. I'm doing things in the order the pattern states, so I have the body stitches on waste yarn while I do the sleeves. Then I'll do fancy steeking things that terrify me so let's move on quickly, and then the body stitches get sewn to the inside of the sweater. Seems like there should be a neater way to do this, but I haven't figured it out yet. I think perhaps I'm just used to bottom-up sweaters in which I can knit the cast on stitches together with the body stitches.

In related news, I can get about 9 rounds of sleeve done during my lunch hour.

Fingering weight sweaters are not for those who need to see rapid progress. In fact, I'm not sure they're even for people who think progress is important in any way whatsoever. Fingering weight sweaters are probably for people who are content to knit and knit and knit and then have their work unraveled each night while they sleep, like Penelope's weaving but with less feasting and more sadism.

So, it's going pretty much like we knew it would. I've been dreaming about a nice bulky weight hat just to cleanse the palette (like this one), but I've been able to resist thus far. If you'll excuse me, I have a couple sleeves to knit.

Knitting Quietly

I've been knitting a bit, reading a bit, and playing in the dirt a lot.

I had three cubic yards of compost delivered. The leaf compost I've gotten in the past has smelled sickeningly sweet. This stuff, horse manure and straw aged for 18 months, had no odor. A friend suggested it was actually unicorn manure. She is probably correct.

That's all been moved now. Two cubic yards or so have been spread on beds and in the raised garden beds. There's a big pile of it waiting for more raised beds to be constructed, but I choose not to think about that.

I've also been knitting Changefuls. I was able to get the obligatory phlox photo in the brief moment phlox looks pretty and not brown and disappointing.

I've finished the first sock. It's... fine. The pattern should be closer to the toe, but I started it too early. I disliked doing the patterned rows enough that I decided I didn't want to rip it out. Left-leaning cables with purls thrown in are a pain.

Changeful- Version 1 (mine ravelled here),

knit in Pagewood Farm Denali Hand Dyed Sock Yarn in Fuchsia Fizz (sadly discontinued)

Andrew's office got together for pizza and a hockey game. I was at the point that I couldn't knit Changefuls because of the chart, so I worked on a ribbed sock for Andrew. It's Malabrigo Sock, which feels a little thin, so I did 72 sts and size 0 (2.0 mm) needles. Obviously, I love Andrew a lot.

Turner Ribs (mine ravelled here),

knit in Malabrigo Yarn Sock in the Turner 851 colorway

One of Andrew's co-workers said I was "obsessive" about knitting, and I did not stab him with my tiny dpn. I was impressed with my self-control. There will never ever be knitwear for him, amen.

You can't trust the Muggles.

Opening Day!

Last night was the first Cincinnati Reds game of the season, and I was ready.

Changeful- Version 1 (mine ravelled here),

knit in Pagewood Farm Denali Hand Dyed Sock Yarn in Fuchsia Fizz (sadly discontinued)

This pattern has three possible iterations. I chose the simplest. I've done the 24 round cuff chart the the 4 round set up to the main body of the pattern, and now it's a simple round made up entirely of knits and knit through back loops over and over until I reach the heel flap.

This is perfect, simple knitting for when my attention will be on the television instead of my hands. Nobody can say I don't learn from my mistakes.

P.S. We won.

Paper Moon, Blue Moon Completed

I usually knit top-down socks, so I'm not very adept at knowing where to start the gusset when doing toe-up to ensure the foot will be the right length.

So, I followed the pattern blindly.

We all know how this is going to work out.

I tried the first sock on before starting the leg pattern. The foot is too long. There was no way around that fact, although I did spend a few moments trying to convince myself otherwise. Then I contemplated whether I wanted to rip all the way back to eight rows before starting the gusset and withered a little inside.

(That's a pretty gusset though.)

New plan: My mom will love these socks for her birthday.

Paper Moon (mine ravelled here),

knit in Pagewood Farm Aleyska Hand Dyed Sock Yarn in the Vineyard Blues colorway 

 Problem solved.

Paper Moon, Blue Moon

I spent some time with my stash over the past week. I had to have a few Come to Jesus conversations with myself. They went something like this:

Do not be ridiculous. It is literally impossible for you to not have 600 yards of a laceweight yarn you like. Look at the laceweight yarn you own. LOOK AT IT. It's beautiful!

and then:

You spend half your waking life complaining about your inability to avoid purchasing variegated skeins of sock yarn even though you know it's hard to find a pattern for them. How can you now say you have no variegated sock yarn that would work with this pattern? HOW?

In the stash is a lovely skein of Pagewood Farm Alyeska sock yarn in the Vineyard Blues colorway. They've discontinued that yarn base, but they still have the color on other bases. 

The problem, if it can be called that, is that it is only 360 yards. That makes me nervous I'll run out of yarn before I finish a second sock. Remember this? I live in fear of it.

The answer is a toe-up pattern. I've had Paper Moon in my mental queue since it was published in 2011, but I kept putting it off because I don't enjoy toe-up patterns like I do cuff-down. Clearly, this was a toe-up sort of skein. I wound it into two 50 gram balls and plan to knit each sock until I run out of yarn.

Paper Moon Socks (mine ravelled here),

knit in Pagewood Farm Alyeska, Vineyard Blues Colorway

I honestly can't remember if it took three or four tries to successfully get the toe started. Someday starting a toe will be easier. That day is not today. At one point, Andrew, a nonknitter, stopped, stared, and said incredulously, "Are you doing toe up? WHY?" Man, I love him.

Regardless, it's now started and I'm excited to finally make myself a pair of Paper Moons!

I'm not the only one who has projects they want to make that take five years to get started for no apparent reason, right?

Stripy Grays

My stripy gray socks are finished! I washed them yesterday and was thrilled they were dry so I could wear them to work today.

Stripy grays in my normal 3x1 ribbed pattern (mine ravelled here),

knit in the very sensible Patons Kroy Socks Ragg Shades in Blue Striped Ragg

I first saw this colorway on Glenna C's website here. I fell in love immediately. The fact that it's a workhouse yarn such that I could make a pair of socks for around $12 strengthened my love.

They're fraternal twins.

I could have done an afterthought heel to preserve the stripes, but it didn't seem worth the effort since I wasn't trying to match them to one another. These will get a ton of wear. They're subdued enough to wear to work, but colorful enough to be cheerful. Despite the name of the colorway, I consider these gray socks, not blue.

February

It's cold. And gray. I'm wearing my Farmer's Market Cardigan and Pelagia noctiluca socks, but they aren't enough to keep me from wanting to be in my pajamas in my bed with chocolate chip cookies.

It is February. And I have hit the point where it's just "head down, keep walking" and believe that someday it will be sunny again. I'm not yet to the point where I believe that peonies are just a figment of my imagination, but I'm close.

I've begun writing down quotes in a little book I keep in my purse. Today I wrote this, which came from the little tear-off calendar I keep on my desk at work:

Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words.

Keep your words positive because your words become your behaviors.

Keep your behaviors positive because your behaviors become your habits.

Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values.

Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny. 

 -Mahatma Gandhi 

It's an ambitious goal for February, but I'll try.

Stripy grays in my normal 3x1 ribbed pattern (mine ravelled here),

knit in the very sensible Patons Kroy Socks Ragg Shades in Blue Striped Ragg

This helps.

Brown and the Antidote

Simply Socks had a sale, and Andrew picked out some yarn. I was in the mood for some mindless knitting, so I made him socks.

 Ribbed socks (mine ravelled here),

knit in Crystal Palace Yarns Sausalito, Chipotle colorway

I did plain old k2, p2 socks over 68 stitches.

I cannot express how boring they were. I know better than to knit with brown in the winter. Only stubbornness kept me going. Once I was done, there was only one thing to do to restore equilibrium in my brain.

Ribbed Fluormanias (mine ravelled here),

knit in Schachenmayr Regia Fluormania Color, colorway 7187

Better. Much, much better.

Love in Every Stitch

The owner of Absalom the Destroyer is still having a rough time physically. My reaction to that is to knit her things and worry a lot. You can guess which one is more productive.

It is a testament of my love for her that one of those knit things is a pair of kneesocks in her favorite colorway. Miles and miles of ribbed kneesocks.

Drops Long Socks (mine ravelled here),

knit in Felici Fingering in the (discontinued) Groovy colorway 

I'm still searching for the perfect kneesock pattern. I'm excited for her to try these on because I think I may have nailed it. It has an extra-long heel flap and gusset to better fit her foot. It has 80 stitches at the top in a k3, p2 pattern. After a million miles, it decreases down to 64 stitches in k2, p2. I did the decrease over two rounds about an inch apart. Decreasing 16 stitches at once seemed a recipe for weirdness. I honestly didn't follow the pattern except for the stitch count. I just did my normal heel flap, gusset, and toe. If it's not broken...

Once those were done, I was still avoiding the blue sweater and decided to reknit the Fightin' Words fingerless gloves. They were too small to be really comfortable for my friend, and she had requested another pair.

I made the cuff longer than the pattern states and added four more patterned rounds to the top. I count it a victory that I remembered to switch needle sizes every time I was supposed to do so. (It's a lot.) I love these and still may make a pair of mittens for me at some point.

Fightin' Words (mine ravelled here),

knit in leftovers--a mystery black 

and Knitpicks Chroma fingering in (discontinued) Roller Skate colorway

I may not be able to fix what ails her, but I'll do my best to keep her warm.

Hospital Socks

It's been a rough couple of weeks. A close family member had serious surgery that went pear-shaped. She's now in in-patient rehab, and we're not sure what her recovery is going to look like. The day before she moved from the hospital to rehab, one of my bffs went into the hospital with an abdominal abscess we have named Absalom the Destroyer. He's a bastard, and she's still waiting (four days later) to learn what the hospital is planning to do to deal with him.

I tried to work on a sweater, but it's not enjoyable. I haven't been able to figure out why I'm not enjoying it, but I hope it has something to do with the needle. I might try to switch to a longer cable. (I'm grasping at straws. Let's pretend that's not true.) The sweater has potential, but I'm having a heck of a time helping it to fulfill it.

Dalekanium Cardigan (ravelled here),

knit in Mineville Wool Project DK Merino

Of course, I had backup yarn 'cause this ain't my first rodeo. I was amused to see how well the sock-in-progress matched my friend's hospital gown.

Hospital Teacups (ravelled here),

knit in Knitpicks' Felici, Teacup colorway

My hope is that both of my loved ones will recuperate quickly and fully, and the clearest memory we'll have of this difficult time is a pair of lovely, striped socks.

So say we all.

Please do not exterminate.

As a rule, I think you should avoid celebrating the villains. Don't wear a Darth Vader shirt. Don't make a Weeping Angel that will then send you back in time and eat your life force. Don't crochet a Gargamel; that guy's an asshole.

But I knit a pair of socks called Dalekanium. It's an easy stitch pattern and looks great in self-striping yarn. I was powerless against them, which is exactly what they want.

They're toe-up, another thing I usually avoid, However, I was knitting a gift for a guy with big feet, and I didn't want to run out of yarn. It's happened to me before.

They have a teeny-tiny gusset and a short-row heel. I didn't pick up the wraps, and I like the way the heel looks. 

The stitch pattern itself is easy. There's a slipped stitch every fifth stitch on the top of the foot and all the way around the leg. It makes charming loops on the fabric. 

It also makes the sock run VERY LARGE. I ripped back and ended up knitting the smallest size for my friend's man feet. For some reason, the pattern doesn't count the slipped stitches as part of the stitch count. If I knit these for me, and I might, I'll go down to 55 stitches (plus the slipped stitches). The size small is written for 60 stitches. 

Dalekanium socks (mine ravelled here),

knit in Knitpicks Felici, Rustic Cabin colorway 

(discontinued, because Knitpicks hates me)