Knitting Frenzy

I just looked at my last entry on this blog and was appalled to see that it has been over 3 weeks. Not that ever had many readers, but is anyone still out there?


I haven't been writing, but I have been knitting. To the point that my shoulder aches, and I'm pulling out the xerox sheet of physical therapy exercises I got a few months ago when my shoulder pain became unbearable and an orthopedist referred me to physical therapy. That was back when I thought Taekwando was causing my shoulder pain -- now I know it's kntting.


I am on a bit of a knitting frenzy -- the holidays are coming!!! My two youngest children have come to believe that the holiday season is When Mom Knits Us New Stuff. And I love knitting things for them, because they wear my creations obsessively. I also want to knit gifts for other family members. But the real reason I'm in a frenzy? There are so many projects I want to knit for myself.


So here's the latest batch of FO's.


Winter Camp Sucks Socks for oldest son, who does not share his siblings sense of entitlement around hand-knitted items for the winter season:


That's my feet they're modeled on. I knit and finished these right in front of him, and he never blinked. I quietly put them away in the closet after I finished them. He likely thinks they were knit for myself -- our feet are the same lenght, but his are a bit wider. Please see previous blog posts for the reason behind the project name.

Specs:
Yarn: Elann Peruvian Luxury Merino Superwash in Slate Gray. Lovely yarn. It was billed as DK, but it was nice and beefy -- more like a Worsted, truthfully.
Pattern: A melange of instructions from C. Schurch's books. The leg is Ribbed Squares from More Sensational Knitted Socks, the cuff and foot patterns are just extensions of that pattern. Short row heel (to minimize bulk) and traditional toe.
Needles: Clover 24" size 3 bamboo circs. First time I've used these. Nice needles, very smooth join, but a bit too "sticky" for working with wool. Slow.
Learned for next time: Short row heels are shorter than flap heels, and I really need to add an extra inch or two to the leg!

Next up, Tri-Peak Hat, knit for one of my sib's kids. I actually started this as the jester hat my middle son asked for, but realized after about 4" that it was mistake to change both the needle size and %ease without re-doing the calcs. It was too tight on my 11YO, but I figured it would be a good fit on a pre-schooler -- and since I intended to use the same yarn for the tri-peak hat anyway, I just switched patterns mid-way. The hat is modeled here by my daughter, ever-willing to model knitwear and never without a knitwear request...




Specs:
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts "Twisted", in Gingerbread Dude.
Pattern: Baby Tri-Peak Hat by Woolly Wormhead. Modified for finer gage. I also added 2 rounds of 1x1 rib to control the roll of the brim.
Needles: addi turbo circs, 4mm.

And then I did actually knit my son's Jester hat -- a pic from above:


...and one from the front, pulled over the face, glasses and all:

Specs:

Pattern: Jester Hat from Woolly Wormhead. Adapted for finer gage and smaller head -- easy enough, just cast on a multiple of 6 stitches. Also with 2 rounds of 1x1 rib in the brim.

Yarn and needle same as above.

Learned for next time: IF I knit this pattern again, I will work a couple of inches fewer in the main body so that I can make the points way longer, per my son's preference. Also, cast on either 6 more or 6 fewer stitches to eliminate the pooling that this hat suffered. And finally, double check that you've woven that end in before you snip it!!!!!

And a few more comments about the yarn. I LOVE this yarn. It is wonderfully soft, and the colors are almost literally delicious. Maybe if the colorway had a different name I would have had a different reaction, but every time I got to the white section of the yarn my mouth would water. I would envision white frosting piped onto a warm gingerbread man, and I would wish I could run a finger through and lick it before anyone came in the kitchen. The yarn came in a generous 560 yard skein -- enough for 3 hats, but I'm going to save the last little bit to enjoy over the Christmas vacation.

BUT a word of caution -- Twisted is billed as Aran weight, but it worked more like worsted for me. Maybe with big enough needles you could get 18sts/4", but to get a not-too-flimsy fabric for a hat I worked it at 24 sts/4".

Hello again! Why, yes, that is an FO!

I've been absent from my blog for too long, I know.

The last couple of weeks have been nightmarishly busy. I've taken on a new "25% of my time" assignment at work (but of course haven't shed any other assignments), have become a new girl scout leader (with all the meetings and training that entails), and my spouse was out of town this week (and since I haven't mastered the art of teleportation, my 3 kids and I were 10 minutes late for absolutely everything.)

When I have spent personal time with a computer, it has been to log my stash into Ravelry. My husband doesn't understand this at all. "Why do you want to put pictures of your yarn on a web site when you can just go in the closet and look?" Well, yeah, but...it's SO COOL.

One of the coolest features is downloading your stash list to an excel spreadsheet. Just how much yarn have I logged so far...hmmm, let's see...wow, 4 miles...wait, that's in yards...so, what?12 miles? And that's just sock, lace, and wool yarn. I've got a bit more wool to go, then I start on the cotton, which I buy by the sweater's worth rather than by the ball. I'm worried. I'm debating whether to list the acrylic or not. I have not yet done the backwards calculation -- how many miles of yarn have I knit so far this year -- but 12 miles seems like an enormous amount of yarn.

So, anyway, no time or energy for blogging, but I've had some time for knitting. I made good progress on my Dunes socks. So much progress, that all I had was one toe to decrease and to weave in ends tonight. I am very pleased with these, despite the trouble they gave me initially. I love the delicate lacy look, I love the way the stitches flow, I love the way this yarn looks with this pattern, I love the way they fit. And it got cold enough this week to wear pure wool socks! I hope we have another "cold snap" next week, or maybe just another rainy day so the air conditioner works extra-well.




Specifics:

Pattern: Dunes of Tinfou by Dipsy
Yarn: Unknown, charcoal wool sock yarn I bought several years ago to finish the toes on a pair of men's self-patterning socks. I had at the time such an amazingly powerful memory that I didn't feel any need to keep the ball band.
Needles: US size 1 Brittany Birch DPN's initially, then switched to Crystal Palace Bamboo circulars. Love the tips, hate the joins, but didn't want to change to metal circs.
Modifications: Besides working mostly with 2 circs instead of DPN's, no modifications. The YO's for the lace fell just before purl stitches, so I do wonder whether the pattern intended the YO's to be the half-wrap you get when you purl with the yarn in back or a wrap-and-a-half. I did the latter, because I liked the more pronounced holes in the lace. The sock might have been too small with the half-wrap.
Learned for next time: I knit tighter with circs than with DPN's, even when the needle material is very similar.

Like some others who have knit this pattern, I wasn't wild about the 2 extra stitches on each round. It was only an issue on the leg (and it was much easier to manage with 2 circs), because on the instep you expect to make some adjustments anyway. So when I finished the leg, I just adjusted the stitches so that the extra stitches were down the back of the leg. I'll never have to think about them again.

Hiding in Plain Sight

A few weeks ago, M and I told our sons that they would be going to Boy Scout winter camp this year. Both of them have said that they want to earn their Eagle rank long term. Earning an Eagle rank requires lots of service hours, a big service project, and lots of merit badges. About half those badges are non-discretionary "Eagle-required" badges on subjects like "Citizenship in the Community" and "Personal Management."

My husband and I have been, and will continue to be, very supportive of our kids' scout activities. But sometimes support feels more like, well, nagging. Citizenship/Community for our older son required nearly daily "support" all summer. Occasionally this "support" culminated in screaming fits of exasperation. As in, "This is the third day in a row you've told me you didn't have time! How could you not have 10 minutes to google 'suburban alligator control'!" The worst was the 3 weeks of "support" it took to get him to actually talk to someone in the Texas Parks and Wildlife department about alligator control -- the absolute last requirement on that badge. While I remember my own teenage mortification at the idea of talking to a grownup, I was nevertheless impatient with his plight.

So I'm a bit weary of "support." And this winter camp looked like an exceptional opportunity. Large attendance (something like a thousand kids) and staffed by parents and scout leaders who share our interest in knocking out those badges. In a 4 day camp, they typically earn 4 to 6 badges. And with the large numbers of boys, they offer just about every merit badge.


We decided to trade in our summer badgering routine for a few relatively short weeks of acute whining. Good trade-off so far. The boys even wrote a highly entertaining essay on Why Winter Camp Sucks.

From the opening paragraph:

You get pneumonia from being in an overly cold environment, like winter camp. It
is one of the most horrible diseases ever. Frostbite can cause fingers, toes,
noses, etcetera to fall off. This could make it quite hard to play the guitar or
trumpet. And it would suck.

They tried pushig every real and perceived parental button -- here's one of the more entertaining attempts:

With the $280 bucks that you save from not sending us to winter camp, you could buy your own x-box 360 and the Tiger Woods golf game.

There was a comment about starving children in Africa -- a cliche I thought had passed with my childhood.

Or try this one:

Grandma and Grandpa won’t get to see us over the break and they will be sad because their only grand children are at some sucky winter camp in crappy little tents, trying to stay warm and not die of pneumonia or frostbite of the brain.

And the coup de grace:

There is no caffeine.
I suffer from caffeine withdrawal and there is no caffeine at camp.
There is no eggnog.
Eric suffers from chronic eggnog withdrawal.

If I could quit laughing I might feel bad for them.

But what does this have to do with knitting, you ask?

Lest anyone accuse me of not being sympathetic to my sons' miserable situation, I cast on a new pair of socks last night. Winter Camp Sucks socks for the elder son. Worked in DK-weight merino on size 3 needles, they should keep his toes from freezing off.



I knit the swatch as he sat across the kitchen table from me, doing his Chemistry homework. He never asked. He showed me a magic trick while I was doing the ribbing. He might have looked at my pattern notes with the heading "WCS socks." But I'm sure he didn't. And I'm sure he won't look at this blog either. And the funnest part will be that since our feet are the same length I can try them on my own feet instead of his, and he will just assume the socks are for me. They will be a surprise Christmas present that he's seen a hundred times but not noticed.

If he's lucky I'll have enough yarn leftover to knit him a Winter Camp Sucks hat.

Distractions

I finally got my Ravelry invitation! I was so excited Sunday when I saw it, but it's so simple to use, it's almost a let-down. I was looking forward to a couple of hours of loading my current WIP's to Ravelry, as a warm-up, and it only took a half-hour or so. Sigh.


Over the weekend, I began my X-mas knitting. I started with what I hoped would be a quick but luxurious project and it was everything I wanted it to be...almost. It was nearly perfect --easy to knit, delightful stitch pattern, lovely soft yarn. But the pattern calls for beads, and the ones I picked look terrible. I was wrong to assume that "size 6 beads" are the same as "6mm beads." Perhaps my error was in worrying too much about whether the yarn would fit through the bead hole? Regardless, the beads are WAY too big for the pattern, and since I haven't been able to convince myself that It Will Be OK, I must rip the otherwise lovely half-done project.


Alas, I cannot post pictures project since the recipient knows about this blog. The recipient is not a knitter, however, so I have posted more info on Ravelry. (My apologies to those of you who are still waiting for your invite!) But I won't leave you pictureless. For your viewing pleasure, Belinda's Dream:

Finished: Funky Camo Socks

I knit these for the most "unique" of my children -- my middle son E. He picked the yarn and told me how he wanted them made: "only up to about here, and just a plain pattern, and not too loose 'cause I hate when my socks bunch up inside my shoe." Done:

When I asked him to model them for me, he thought they'd look good with his pajama pants:

Yes, that's flannel. No, these aren't old pictures. Yes, Houston is still sauna-hot. No, his bedroom is actually kind of warm. He just really, really likes flannel pants and thinks they are year-round wear. The difference between winter and summer is that in summer you don't wear a shirt and you turn the ceiling fan on really high.

While I was knitting the socks, I kept wondering what kind of kid needs socks this long and skinny. The answer of course is my kid. Long skinny socks for long skinny feet:

All said, he likes the socks. "They'll be my Friday socks." We've checked his school dress code, and it appears that socks are actually one of the rare non-restricted areas, open for self-expression. He'd probably love the bmp socks but I don't want to knit them just yet so won't show him the pattern.

Specifics:

Yarn: Crystal Palace Panda Cotton in the "Fern" colorway, purchased from the Loopy Ewe.

Needles: Addi Turbo 2.5mm circs

Pattern: Basic sock pattern. 3x1 rib for the leg and instep, standard flap heel, standard kitchnered toe.

Learned for next time: I really should avoid doing too many simple projects like this -- if E hadn't been nagging me, these would have fallen to the bottom of my knitting list. Dull. The 2.5mm addis are the best needles for Panda Cotton for me.

Philadephia!

Sorry for my long absence -- M and I visited Philadelphia over the weekend, and my schedule before and after were/will be so hectic that I spent most of last week scurrying to have everything ready for the trip and for this week.

Let me first say that Philadelphia is a delightful city to visit, and I would expect it is also a delightful city to live in. We stayed at a 30+ story hotel in the middle of down town and yet were no more than a 10 minute walk from lovely green parks in every direction we tried. There were young families with children, people with pets, college students, and professional people on every sidewalk. People were friendly, and the streets seemed safe everywhere we went.

View from our hotel room:

One of the many fountains and many sculptures all over the city:


I had no idea that it was a statue before it was a postage stamp.

And, of course, the whole place is steeped in history. This is the room in the Pennsylvania State House (a.k.a. Independence Hall) where the Declaration of Independence was debated and then signed, and later where the Constitution was signed. The chair at the front is the very one that George Washington sat in when he signed the Constitution (my zoom was not strong enough to show the rising sun motif):

Other notable sites: The museum of the Americal Philsophical Society, which was running a small but very impressive exhibit on American explorers -- no photography allowed, unfortunately. The Liberty Bell, of course. The Ben Franklin Parkway, all of it, flanked with trees and amazing architecture and sculpture, from the "Love" fountain to the art museum with the steps of Rocky fame.

The reason for our visit was that M was receiving an award for technical achievement from the company he works for. I didn't realize how significant the award was until we got the awards dinner and I met and chatted with the CEO of the company as well as the company founder's son and grandson. So I'm very proud of my former lab and plant-design-project partner, now my spouse.

Nevertheless, I had made it clear to him that if I were going to spend 2 days of my vacation going to an out-of-town business function with him, he would have to accompany me for some yarn shopping. One short mile from our hotel, Rosie's Yarn Cellar. Literally in a basement, it was a tiny space with an enormous collection of the sorts of yarn I like to buy. The large selection of sock yarn was just inside the door, and a 180 degree turn and 2 steps took you to the very impressive collection of lace yarns. Knitted samples EVERYWHERE, most designed and knit by the staff. Who, by the way, were very helpful and friendly.

I need to do a "recent stash addition" post, but it will wait.

Oh, and I finished two socks (from two pairs) while I was there.

Oh, and I met a fellow knitter at the awards dinner -- she had a pattern published in IK a few years ago which I will have to look up...

Remembering the Symphony

They guys -- both sons and my husband -- went on a Boy Scout "camp out" this weekend. Quotes because the troop went to Schlitterbahn, an enormous, old, and truly wonderful water park in central Texas. They pitched tents at a genuine BSA camp near by, but ate all their meals at the water park so as to maximize fun time. So "camping" is term loosely used.

So K and I were at the house by ourselves this weekend. We had talked about what to do with our Girls Weekend. She suggested we go "motoring" in the MINI, but she quickly abandoned that idea when I mentioned a drive through scenic countryside that would also go very near a LYS I wanted to visit. That, and she wanted to have a classmate over for a play date.

I quickly jumped on "play date" because she suggested a girl who...how to put this...I think is a good match for K. The girl seems sweet, K never reports any conflicts with her, and I've met her parents and they seem to have the same values and lifestyle as us.

Last year, K had two good friends that I could never quite embrace. One was a girl I actively disliked -- she was petty, domineering, and manipulative. And, worse, the only time K didn't seem stressed about their relationship was when she was outmaneuvering, out manipulating the girl.

The second girl, the third of the disturbing little threesome, was nice enough but I couldn't connect with her mom. The girl was the grand daughter of a major sports celebrity, and dad had some considerable wealth from managing the franchises in grandpa's name. Her mom and I tried to connect for the sake of the girls' friendship, but we just couldn't find common ground. For one, I work full time and she never has. We had gone to the same university but she was into the sorority scene and I was an engineering major. We agreed that it was important to expose our kids to the things that would be important in later life -- but for her that was golf, tennis, and not pressuring kids too much about grades, and for me that was scouts, tae kwon do, and making sure my kids had challenging coursework.

So, I jumped on this opportunity to encourage a friendship with a sweet little girl whose parents are both professionals, who seem to have similar academic goals for our kids, and who have a hectic evening schedule that rivals ours. And that took care of Saturday DAY.

At piano lessons on Wednesday, the teacher and I were talking about upcoming Houston Symphony concerts and how we'd like to attend that weekend's program. As we left, K jumped on that idea -- "let's go see that, Mom. It sounds really fun." I agreed, we'll do it.

On the internet next day: cheapest seats were $45. I regained my breath, clicked "buy", and we were going. And on Saturday, I treated her to the whole thing -- dressing up in our best, getting dinner near the symphony hall with other concert and theater-goers, then claiming our seats at the hall.

They opened with Beethoven's 1st symphony -- good enough, but mainly interesting for historical perspective. The next piece was to be a modern thing, written in 1998 by Kevin Puts. K was already fidgeting, so I decided to start our intermission early. The bartender had a little sister about K's age, so he made her a very special Sprite with pink stuff and cherries. And we watched the Mr. Puts piece on the CCTV they had in the lobby (I actually liked it, but it was...modern.) Then we explored the hall a bit -- found all the bathrooms, talked about the 2nd balcony that had been closed off when they rejigged the ceiling for better acoustics, checked out the gift shop.

Then back to our seats for the Emperor concerto.

And what a treat that was. The pianist, Garrick Ohlsson, was wonderfully expressive, with tones ranging from silver bells to thundering cavalry. The orchestra was spot on with timing and phrasing. And, of course, it was Beethoven at his mature best, and there's not much in the world that can be better than that.

And I remembered why I love going to symphony, even though I haven't been in a few years. In a hall, you hear every note, every nuance -- without fiddling with the volume nob. And somehow you're part of it, not just a passive observer.

Ohlsson, for his part, was a very gracious showman. On his third call-back, he sat back down at the piano and played an encore -- the adagio from Beethoven's Pathetique. As it turns out, this was Kathryn's favorite part. When I told her that being able to play something like that was why I had started taking piano lessons again, she she said that she, too, wanted to learn to play pieces like that "so that when you and Daddy are making dinner at night, I can play something nice for you to listen to." How could she know that was the perfect thing to say?

Oh, and I got some knitting done. While watching the girls swim on Saturday, I got to within about an inch of starting the toe decreases on E's camo socks. And I finished the heel turn and gusset decreases on my Dunes socks. I really like the way the eye-of-partridge heel stitch shows off the shading in this nearly-solid yarn:

And I putzed around in the garden a bit. This guy seemed to be enjoying the flowers too:

Strange Winds

What a strange 24 hours for weather reporting in Houston. Usually if there is storm headed our way, we watch it for days and the newscasters spend a lot of time reminding people of preparations they need to make.

But this was really different. When I left the house yesterday morning it was a tropical low pressure system that would bring lots of rain. Next time I checked the radio it was Tropical Depression 9. Then Tropical Storm Humberto. By the time I left work they were talking about school closings. At dinner time it was aimed right at us. I went to bed expecting to be awoken in the wee hours by howling winds and pounding rains.

But when I poured my coffee this morning, my spouse said -- surprise! -- it had been upgraded to Hurricane Humberto. Huh, I thought, as I looked at the slightly-low pool level and the neat dry back yard. And surprise #2, it had scooted on up the coast almost to Louisiana.

The kids were disappointed that they had to go to school. (Hello! Hurricane! did you think we'd have electricity for video games?) Today was dry and partly cloudy. We're not even getting the three days of rain we expected from the low pressure system. Very strange.

Finished: Josephine

After several late nights when I should have been working (or sleeping so that I could stay awake at work the next day), I finished Josephine last night. I am prouder of this project than any other I have finished in a very long time. The knitting itself looks good, it fits well, and the finishing work came out beautifully. I think all the sock knitting -- with picking-up of gusset stitches -- has really helped me to pick up edges and do seams. This is the most "professional" job I've ever done on a sweater.



A detail of the cap sleeve -- I love the short-row shaping and the little rolled edge:

And a close up of hte V-neck:

And an apology for the lighting in these pictures. We have yet another storm coming in off the Gulf, and dry spots with natural light will be non-existent for the next several days. So my loving spouse hauled his shop lights into the house and set them blaring. Not ideal, but I couldn't bear to wait until the sun came back.

So, the details:

• Pattern: Jospehine, from the Spring'07 issue of Interweave Knits
• Yarn: Shoeller & Stahl "Mama Mia", mercerized cotton, purchased from Elann.com several years ago for a project I never started. Ball band gage 24 sts/10cm.
• Needles: Addi Turbo circulars -- size 5 for most, size 4 for the sleeve bind off
• Modifications: Added ~2" between the eyelet row and the start of the arm hole. Started the neck shaping at the same time as armhole shaping (rather than just above the eyelet row.) I didn't intend to increase the armhole depth, but ended up adding ~3/4" due to a slight miscalculation on the neck decreases -- and I'm glad I did. The pattern calls for very tight arm holes.
• Wish I'd done different: I wish I had seen Sandi's wonderful posts on ease before I started this sweater. I chose a size with zero ease, and actually hoped the fabric would grow a bit so the sweater wouldn't be too tight. Now I wish I had gone with a couple or three inches of negative ease. The swatches didn't shrink when I washed and dried them flat, but now that it seems likely that the sweater will grow, I'm going to toss them in dryer and see what I get.
• Learned for next time: If I want to modify a pattern, I need to DRAW A FULL SCHEMATIC FIRST. I ended up reworking the back because I tried to work out the revised instructions without referencing a schematic. And I will likely re-use the finishing techniques on other sweaters I do.

I also learned, or am reminded, why I have avoided knitting sweaters by hand. Heavy gages are too warm to be wearable in Houston, but small gages take stinkin' forever to knit! I'm glad I knit this sweater, but I won't be doing another by-hand sport weight top anytime soon.

That said, the thing that I really really really want to start next is the Norah Gaughan's Origami Cardi from the same IK. I plan to do the fun pattern stitch bands by hand, then do the large boring stockinette sections on the knitting machine.

Maybe I'll wrap up a couple of UFO's before I start that, though.

Postscript: Panda Cotton Monkeys

Just a quick post to update everyone:

Late last week, I wore the Monkey socks that I made in Panda Cotton. And they were every bit as nice on my feet as they felt to my hand. They felt very thick and cushy, but not too tight in my shoes. And they were comfortable both in my frigid office and for 20-minute stints in 95 degree/90% humidity sauna, I mean, weather.

When it rains...

I'm proud to post some progress at last! First, late last week I finished the 2nd try of the back of Josephine. Both the front and back are now blocked and resting in the guest room, and I'm getting my second wind on this sweater. I can't wait to finish. And in Houston there are, like, 8 more weeks of summer so I'll even get a chance to wear it:










We went to visit my folks near Ft Worth this weekend, and I finished my first, but not last, pair of Monkey's on the drive up there:

Specifics:

• Yarn: Crystal Palace Panda Cotton in color "Roses" (purchased on-line from the Loopy Ewe.)
• Pattern: Monkey from Cookie A
• Needles: Umm, mostly US 1 5" Brittany Birch DPN's, but only after failed attempts with Crystal Palace circs (the join wasn't smooth enough for this yarn) and 7" Brittany Birch DPN's
• Modifications: I made the second sock with 5, rather than the specified 6, pattern repeats in the leg. Yeah, that was on purpose. And I did my "typical toe decrease", which included a few rounds of decreasing every round before grafting the last few -- the pattern calls for a more square-ish toe that just seems unnatural to me.
• Other comments: Yes, the yarn is kind of splitty. It took me a few inches of knitting to become consistently split-free. Now that I'm familiar with the yarn, it works up very well. The yarn is also very slippery -- combine that with splitty, and you've got real trouble if you need to back up and correct a mistake. The upside of slippery is that the socks feel like heaven on your feet. I'll definitely work with this yarn again, I just won't choose complicated patterns. And I'll definitely make Monkey's again. The pattern is completely addictive and practically flies off the needles.

I worked on another pair of Panda Cotton socks on the way home, but that will be another post.

The End Already?

Tomorrow is the first day of school. It's hard to believe, even though this was a longer-than-typical summer. Our legislature decided school shouldn't start until 1 week before Labor Day (rather than mid-August), but since the length of the school year is unchanged I have no idea what the benefit is. The cynic in me suggests it is a one-time shift in cash flow so that the state finances look a smidge better going into an election year. But I'm sure it really was about Childhood and Summer and Family Time Together, as our lawmakers suggested. Next summer break will be 10 weeks, just like before, only starting in mid-June.


The boys were on a Boy Scout camp out this weekend, and came home tired and cranky today. E and his best friend had a 3rd boy in their tent who ignored their request to put his bag of M&M's in the chuck box. E retains a bit of his raccoon phobia, but he how has another reason for No Food in The Tent: ants. E came home with 4 or 5 pimply fire ant bites on his face.



While the boys were away, M and I decided to go to a semi-fancy (not kid oriented) restaurant with K in tow. It was almost like going on a real date. While we waited for our order, she read a book and we enjoyed adult conversation. She spoke politely to the waiter, used her flatware appropriately, and kept her napkin in her lap. How wonderful to have proof that we aren't, after all, incapable of teaching children good manners.


I took advantage of the quiet weekend to catch up on housework and to crank out some knitting. At long last, I have finished the front of Josephine:

And holding it up to my front, I believe it will fit as I wanted -- draw cord below my bust, neckline saucy but wearable without an undershirt.

I had been worried that my gage had become erratic, but it looks OK here, even without blocking:

I also frogged the back down to just below the old armhole shaping, and am now in the process of adding some length to match the revised dimensions I used for the front. It's going much faster than I expected, thank goodness. Maybe I'll be able to wear this before it turns cool after all.

Motoring

Despite my long absence from the blogosphere, I have very little knitting to report on.

On Thursday afternoon, we braved the flooding left by Tropical Storm Erin and headed for the airport.

A brief rant: How can some people who live in Houston be so clueless about driving after a heavy rain? Rule #1 of driving a car through water that's a smidge too deep: ONCE YOU START, DON'T STOP. If you stop, the wake you created will wash back up your tailpipe. And then you are stuck in the middle of an intersection, blocking the way of the rest of us who aren't clueless.

Even though it took us triple the normal time to get to the airport, our flight was only delayed by about an hour, and my eldest son and I arrived in Maryland...well, pretty stinking late. And on Friday, my brother and I went down to his bank and transferred ownership of this baby:

Friday afternoon, my son and I began the long trek back to Houston, including a celebratory side trip through Shenandoah National park, where I took the picture.

I had lured R to accompany me on this trip by promising frequent stops for Frappucinos. Two hours into Day 2, I finally spotted a Starbuck's. Why is it there are 7 Starbuck's within 5 miles of my house, but not a single damned one visible along Interstate 81? I thought they outnumbered McDonald's, and there were plenty of those. Next time I will do my research before I make promises I can't honor. But at least we found one:

For some reason -- well, one of two reasons -- R insisted we drive all the way west across Tennessee rather than dropping diagonally across the South. I suspect he was influenced by his dad's worry about driving an unfamiliar car through the numerous storms blanketing the South. But Ryan said he "just wanted to see Knoxville, Nashville, and Memphis."

Spotted from a rest stop near the eastern Tennessee line:

That's a building on the other side of the freeway -- the "neck" is a breezeway to another building. We noted that billboards in Knoxville claimed it was the Birthplace of Country Music. Memphis welcomed us to the Birthplace of Rock and Roll. We spent a fair amount of time talking about guitars and rock-n-roll.

On Sunday afternoon we finally arrived back home. And I'm pleased to report that the MINI was every bit as fun to drive as it looks. It was a blast driving it across country. I'm starting to wonder what other road trips I can fit into my calendar...

Back in the Saddle

Mid-week my new US sz 1 DPN's arrived in the mail, so I was able to get going on the Monkey's again. I got in some time at restaurants and some time while chatting with friends last night, and I am now about 1 repeat away from beginning the toe decreases:

I also worked a few hours on Josephine during the evenings at home and have finished the lace section of the front. Since summer here will last until October, the odds are looking good that I'll get to wear it this year despite the delays and rework.

And our friends whose critters we tended last week returned from Wyoming bearing thank-you gifts. T-shirts for most of us, but this was for me:

A 100g ball of Tofutsies from a yarn store in Wyoming. I think only the best kind of friend helps you build your sock-yarn stash when she is not herself a knitter!

On the music front, 15YO R reminded me of my promise -- that if he worked hard to learn guitar using his dad's old acoustic, then we would buy him an electric guitar set-up. He seems to spend about half his waking hours with a guitar in his hand, so yesterday I made good:

That is an actual smile on his face -- more rare than you could imagine. And the smile stayed on his face for the rest of the day.

And finally, a picture from my garden. Although we rudely transplanted them in the spring and have had freakishly cool/rainy weather for most of hte summer, the birds of paradise decided to bloom after all. So beautiful it makes August in Houston worthwhile:

Knitting Delimmas

It has been a weekend of knitting...disappointments. Not catastrophes. Minor setbacks that may take many hours to fix, but not catastrophes.

On Friday at dinner I nearly finished the heel flap on the Monkeys. The Monkeys have been my carry-along project, worked at restaurants, while waiting, etc. But since picking up gusset stitches takes concentration, I decided to finish the flap and pick up the stitches at home. So, I was picking up the last stitch on the first side and SNAP. Like a toothpick.

Now, with all the extra gusset stitches to work, doesn't seem a good time to start working with 4 needles instead of 5. So...to the internet, order another set of Brittany Birch sz 1 DPN's. AND and a set of US sz 1 steel DPN's. I realize now that having options is good. I will no longer snicker at those knitters who collect needles in addition to yarn.

I can't NOT have something in my purse, but what to take along while I wait for replacement needles? The other small project I have cast on is the Dunes socks. I threw them in my purse. And I remembered when we got to our favorite Italian restaurant why I had not been carrying them along. This particular restaurant is well lit, but I could barely tell knits from purls, and I could only tell bad stitches (splitting yarn, catching the stitch below) by the relative resistance in finishing the stitch. So back to the box under hte Ott-Lite for Dunes. But I am getting close to doing the heel flap -- here's how they look so far:

After dinner I worked on Josephine and nearly finished the lace section of the front. Before I put it away for the night I pulled out the instructions, looked at the revised measurements I had marked in, looked at the back that I had finished, and realized that I had added the "get the drawstring below my boobs" allowance below the drawstring rather than between the drawstring and the armholes.

Surely not, I thought. I held the back up to my front to check. I held the back up to my back. I wondered whether I could fix this with blocking. I wondered if a different bra might hoist things up an inch or two. I tried to convince myself the drawstring across the lower third of my bosom wouldn't really make me look saggy. I considered whether I could cut the sweater and graft in a new piece. I put the sweater away and went to bed and dreamed of bad knitting.

This morning I woke up knowing what I must do: rip back to just below the armholes and rework all of that almost-stockinette. It will be tedious. I need to update my NetFlix queue.

To cheer myself up, I worked up a simple pattern and cast on for E's camo socks. With good ol' unbreakable Addi Turbo's.

Safely Back in the Nest

My darling oldest son returned from Sea Base this evening, full of tales of sea critters and of boy scout dorm room pranks. He is tired and sunburned, but in very high spirits. He even gave me a Real Hug (as compared to the grumbling, stiff-back, arms-at-side lean I get on ordinary days.) Now I can breathe a little easier, after a week of stamping out fear that he'd get sick or bit or worse, and then today a rough afternoon of watching thunderstorms while his plane was supposed to be landing.


One of his favorite things about this camp was that despite being a Boy Scouts of Americal high-adventure camp, they had some decidely relaxed rules around the BSA uniform. Class A uniforms were required at dinner every night, but the green and red socks weren't required if you were wearing flip flops. And the Class A shirts could regular uniform shirts OR...something else, so long as everyone from the troop matched. R and his troop-mates marched to the nearest souvenir shop on the 1st day and bought matching matching t-shirts. Voila, his troop's Sea Base Class A's:

Front

Back

On the knitting front, since casting on the Monkey's in Panda Cotton on Sunday, I've worked just a little bit every night on them. I find I can get a whole repeat of the pattern done while waiting on dinner (boiling pasta, waiting for my restaurant order, etc.) Very, very fast pattern. The sock fabric is coming out very dense and silky and stretchy -- and it feels cool on the skin. Depending on how it wears and washes, I may have found my new favorite summer sock yarn.

Here's progress so far -- 5 pattern repeats, 1 more to go before the heel:

Progress at Last!

Some bloggable progress at last! Clown Jr socks for K now finished:

And now my guilty conscience can rest -- these are the socks she really wanted, and the pattern suits the yarn. To get the ankles to fit, I used a wide rib (3 and 4 knit st's x 1 purl) down to the end of the gusset. Then it was straight stockinette to the toes.

Specifics: Marks & Kattens "Clown" yarn, 45% cotton, 40% superwash wool, 15% nylon. Knit on 2.5mm addi turbos. Pattern -- basic sock pattern from Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns.

About the yarn: like many cotton/wool yarns, it was rather splitty. It feels a little hard and scratchy while knitting and in the finished sock, but I'm expecting it will soften up when it gets washed. The colors are printed on this particular yarn, so aren't rich and saturated like I'd prefer, but then again I didn't pick this yarn, my daughter did. The yardage seems good -- I bought two balls, made two pairs of socks for a youth size 2 foot, and have about a half a ball left over. Would I use it again? If asked, but I wouldn't seek it out.

On other fronts, my second shipment from the Loopy Ewe arrived yesterday. In it, E's "camo sock yarn", a.k.a. Panda Cotton in the Fern colorway:


And, to my immense and continuing delight, some Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in the Champlain Sunset colorway:
The colors just take my breath away, and I can't wait to start knitting it! But since we still have 2 months of very hot weather here, I will work off the Panda Cotton first.

And speaking of Panda Cotton, I did some swatching with the Roses colorway. I knit stockinette with US and metric sizes from 2mm to US size 3 -- 5 different needle sizes. I got everywhere from 8-1/2 sts/in on 2.0mm addis to a little less than 7 sts/in on size 3 bamboo. The yarn looks good in all the gages, but I thought at 2mm it was tad stiff and at US 3 it was too loose for socks (but great for other garments.)

I opted for 2.25mm needles, and have cast on for my first pair of Monkeys. This isn't great yarn for the pattern, but it is a very good pattern for the yarn. And I quickly realized why so many people are hooked on this pattern -- it is completely addictive! It looks complex, but it is actually very simple, and it has a great rythym. And of course, it shows off variegated yarn very well. The Panda Cotton is knitting up great -- very silky and cool-feeling, and the pattern flies.

Where am I?

I know I've been delinquent about posting. I'm not sure what my excuse is. I'm not spending long hours at work. I haven't been reading the new Harry Potter book. I haven't been living at the piano. I haven't been going to extra Taekwondo classes. Heck, I haven't been grocery shopping or cooking or cleaning either. What I have been doing doesn't seem like it should take up that much time:

• getting oldest son equipped, packed, and on his plane to a SCUBA camp
• watching the Tour de France
• oggling sock yarns on-line

I have been spending a fair amount of time knitting -- about as much time as I'm spending watching the Tour. None of it is photo-worthy...yet. I'm working again on Josephine, but the front is progressing very much as the back did. I've knit a few inches on the Dunes socks, but since it's a dark yarn you can't see the pattern unless I put them on something, which I don't dare do again because a whole bunch of stitches fell off the DPN's last time I tried. And I am working a simple pair of ankle socks for K out of the leftover Clown yarn -- my "goes everywhere" project.

Since the sock-yarn oggling seemed rather pointless, I bought some Panda Cotton from the Loopy Ewe (who delivered faster than I thought possible):

The blue (Blueberry Grape) is for K. I've been playing with the other ball of the Roses colorway, and I have to say the yarn is kind of strange to work with. It feels very cool to the touch and is silky smooth, but it looks pretty heavy even though the ball band says you can get 7 sts/in. I've tried it with 3 mm needles (looks almost sport weight) and with 2mm needles (too tight for my taste, but amazingly it was still supple and stretchy.) I need something in-between, but my in-between needle sizes have the above mentioned socks on them. Back to Loopy Ewe for some more needles and another 2 balls. My 10YO son insists he wants a pair of socks in the Fern colorway.

And speaking of my middle child, he is still working on his finger weaving occasionally:

But this week's Hot New Crafts are bead animals and "coasters" (or what I called God's Eyes back in my Girl Scout days.) Here is the batch of finished goods he emptied from his pockets just before dinner yesterday -- a fair day's effort, eh? He's leaving piles of them around the house, but he is consuming large quantities of acrylic...

Glacier Rib Socks Done!

Another FO!

I did most of the knitting on these socks while we were on vacation in Glacier, hence the name. I wore them to work yesterday, and they're very comfortable.

When I first started swatching this yarn, I was disappointed to see it was self-striping. Stripes, ick! Check out the sole -- I'm just not an even stripes sort of gal:

Zig-zaggy patterns are the way to deal, I know, but after the Jaywalkers and K's Clown socks I was ready for something different. Since Charlene Schurch's book was the only one I took with me, and I took a fresh look at all her stitch patterns, and finally opted to use the slip-stitch rib pattern she recommends for breaking up pooling colors:


I loved the way it worked out. Still striped, but so much more interesting than plain stockinette or plain rib.

I used these socks to learn three new (for me) techniques: a short row heel, a tubular bind-off, and Ms. Schurch's "easy toe." I'm glad I learned the short-row heel -- it's fast and easy, if a little flimsy. I'll use it on kids socks, which will be outgrown before they can get worn out.

The tubular bind-off worked very well. I was surpised to realize it is really just kitchner stitch. But it should not be attempted while watching the Tour de France. I got off a stitch somewhere, and ended up with a slanty bind off on one half of one sock. I did not EVEN attempt to fix it (rip out kitchner stitch? are you mad?)

I will definitely use the easy toe technique again -- it is very easy, fits well, and it preserves the pattern on self-patterning yarns. Here it is on these socks (that's a tennis ball in there):



And yes, I know the socks don't match. The yarn came in a single ball and had no repeat that I could discern on the first sock. I'm still not convinced there's a repeat, but it makes no difference -- I've become very attached to the mismatched stripes.

Particulars:
Plymouth Sockotta yarn (45% cotton, 40% SW wool, 15% nylon). Knit on 2.5mm addi circs. Pattern assembled from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks.

I like the yarn, even though it's not as fine as I'd prefer. It's very durable -- I knit two other pairs with it about 4 years ago, and they've worn like iron. And it is not at all splitty like other cotton/wool yarns I've used. It seems to be spun very tight.

Fixed My Ribbing!

As I mentioned in the last post, I've been working on ways to fix my ribbing. Specifically, fixing the last knit/first purl stitch. They always come our looser than the other stitches, and the column seems to wobble because the stitches aren't consistently the same looseness. The sloppy appearance annoys me so much that I avoid ribbed patterns at all -- a serious problem for my sock knitting, since I love the way ribbed socks fit. And there are so many lovely variations of ribbing that I have to avoid!

For 1x1 ribbing, I generally cheat and use twisted rib. But for 2x2, 3x3, etc, the best I could think of was putting good firm YANK on the offending stitches. This approach has several obvious problems; it's tiring, and it makes my wrist hurt; "yanks" are highly inconsistent in and of themselves; it makes ribbing something I have to concentrate on instead of something that is, and should be, nearly mindless; and finally, it only addresses the looseness, not the wobble.

This is an issue for both flat and circular knitting, since when you work the wrong side the first purl becomes hte last knit. I recently re-read the first few chapters of Montse Stanley's Knitter's Handbook. She had a wonderful tip for fixing the loose knit stitch: on the right side of the work, knit through the back of the loop; on the wrong side, purl but wrap the yarn under the needle. In essence, purling with yarn under puts the stitch on the needle backwards, and KTB puts it right. On both sides, there's a bit less yarn in the throw and the stitches tighten up nicely.

But, how to adapt it to circular ribbing? Miss Stanley offers no advice.

After a couple of false starts, I think I've got it.

Here is a sample of circular 3x3 ribbing with my normal tension, no yanking or other techniques for the loose stitches:


I cast on too tight for this sample, masking the problem in the first few rows. But the sample still clearly shows the relative looseness of the last k/first p. The purl stitches seem to cringe to the left, as though there's something repulsive about the last knit stitch. And the last k stitch does form a wobbly column, even though this particular yarn is exceptionally forgiving.


Flip the blocker over, and here is the other side with the improved rib technique:



Not perfect, but vastly improved. When it's not stretched, the unevenness isn't noticeable.



So, here's how I did it.



On the first round (set-up round):

• last k: knit by wrapping yarn in front of the right needle


• first p: knit by wrapping yarn under the right needle
  

On all subsequent rounds:

• last k: knit through back of loop, wrapping yarn in front of right needle


• first p: purl through back of loop, wrapping yarn under the right needle

Here's how the last knit stitch will appear on the left needle after set-up -- the loop is backwards on the needle:

Wrapping the yarn in front of the right needle:

The first purl stitch as it appears on the left needle -- again, the stitch is hanging backwards:

Wrapping the yarn under the left needle:

I'm sure I'm not the only one out there who has this problem, and I'm equally sure I'm not the first one to fix it. But I wanted to share what I've learned so that I might help one of my fellow knitters (as so many of you have helped me through your web posts and podcasts.)