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.

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.