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.

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.

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.

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.

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.