Knitting Update January 2016

Just a quick update on the small amount of knitting I've done in the past few months.

I made these socks from wool I bought in a yarn shop in the Shambles in York last winter. Unfortunately I can't find the ball band, but it was a fairly local yarn.

I knocked up a quick rolled-brim hat out of the Maiden Hair I bought in Kelowna in 2014. I haven't blocked it yet.

And I finally finished off the Multnomah  with a bit of mauve yarn I had in my stash. I think it blends in pretty well.

In the summer, after the experiment with the cabbage, I went on to dye another skein of sock yarn with loquat leaves I picked off my parents' tree. I'd read that you can get a pinky colour, but mine turned out a rather lovely pale pumpkin-pie. Normally I'm not fond of orange, but this shade's not bad.

I've also knit or crocheted several scarves of navy blue acrylic for our homeless project at church but I didn't get pictures of them.

I still have a couple of projects I keep picking up and putting down (and sometimes ripping out entirely). One is a beaded lace shawl I just can seem to get right. I love the pattern but it's tricky and I just can't get the edge to look nice. I may just have to give up and try another pattern. The other is a spring green shawlette I started last summer when I was a little depressed and needed something bright to knit on. I'm not sure why I can't seem to get this one done. I like the yarn and the pattern. I think I'll just have to sit myself down with a good audio book and force myself to get past the section I'm stuck on.

Wendy

Socks

David asked me why, if I loathe handwashing so much, I keep knitting him socks that he wears once and then sit on the top of the washer for six months. It is a very, very, good question.

I've decided that unless I find a luxury sock yarn that absolutely MUST be made into a pair of socks, all my socks from now on will be made of superwash wool.

When I planned to knit all my California family socks for Christmas last year I determined to make it as easy as possible on them, so all my Christmas knitting was superwash. Knit Picks is my friend - all these socks were knitted with Stroll I ordered online and had delivered to my door.

From top to bottom these socks were for Lauren, Dad and Mom - Lauren's and Mom's I heavily adapted existing patterns and Dad's I kind of made up as I went along.

Fin's were my favourites. I'd been wanting to try doing something with Latvian braid and I found this pattern just about the time I was planning my Christmas presents. All the trim was done using bits from the other socks.

 I knit Ally's and Madie's socks using a basic sock pattern but added an eyelet cuff (cause I love eyelet) and did duplicate stitch on the heels for their initials. I couldn't get the colours to come out quite right in the photos - Ally's are a little more purple and Madie's are a really vibrant hot pink.

 By the time I got to Cedric's socks I was running late so didn't initial his heel. However, I don't think anyone's going to be confused about whose socks these are.

Over the winter I did manage to coordinate our church's Homeless knitting project and we ended up with over 200 donated items (some handmade, some bought) - here are a few of them.

One lady brought all hers in individual ziplocs with hand-written notes inside, which I thought was a nice touch.

 For the rest I printed little labels and attached them with a bit of scrap yarn.

 Since Christmas I've only knit one pair of socks for David (no pictures yet) and one sock out of a pair for me. I loved Fin's so much I found another pattern with Latvian braid and am doing myself a pair in purples.

I have a long-ish list of requests, including a knitted viking helmet/beard from Lauren which I was hoping to have done for his birthday, but I'm so far behind it may have to be a Christmas present. I'm also commissioned to knit Evie's young man, Greg, a Jayne Hat but his birthday's in October so I have time to get to that one (this request deeply satisfies the geek in me).

So, that's my knitting for the last few months. I'll try and get pictures of David's new socks (superwash for the win). I have a flight to California coming up next week so hopefully I can get the second sock of my Latvian pair done then and pictures up soon.

Wendy

Six of Nine

Earlier this year I made the fateful decision to knit my family in California socks for Christmas. That's seven pairs of socks.

I know this about myself - I'm not a fast knitter, and am easily distracted, so I started early. Mom and Lauren sent me everyone's shoe sizes and preferred colours. All the adults chose blue. Fortunately Lauren and Dad gave me alternatives so I didn't have to knit four pairs of blue socks in a row - that way madness lies.

I knit the first two pairs (for Mom & Dad) while we were in Australia this summer. Socks are the best travel knitting. I didn't have a pattern for either of them, just a basic sock recipe, to which I added cables to Dad's and lace to Mom's.

A couple of weeks later we went to California for campmeeting and I actually remembered my plan to trace the kids' feet so I had a visual for their socks, rather than just a shoe size.

I had given myself the goal of getting everything knit by the end of October, which would give me plenty of wiggle room in case I knit even more slowly than usual, or something catastrophic happened, and I wouldn't be frantically wrapping and posting seven pairs of socks on Christmas eve.

I'm pleased to say that I've finished Lauren's, Fin's, Ally's (adult size 4) and Madie's (adult size 6!) and only have Cedric's (who, mercifully, has the smallest feet) to go.

This means that I have knit four pairs of socks (and most of a shawl) in about seven weeks - I am basking in the awesome. And simultaneously worrying like heck about whether any of them will fit. Remote knitting is a bit of a crapshoot.

Also, in a moment of weakness, I recently asked Evie and David if they'd like socks for Christmas and they both said yes. Honestly I wasn't expecting Evie to because she's not a big sock fan but I'd just (again in a moment of weakness) sent her a link to a Spirited Away chart

and she couldn't resist the soot sprites. She also wants them to be tabi socks because her big toe likes its personal space.

This means I have three more pairs of socks to go. Six more socks - fine yarn, tiny needles, thousands of stitches. I love knitting socks, but when I've finished my Christmas knitting I'm casting on something involving bulky yarn and size 15 needles.

Sneak Peeks

Although I can't show you pictures of my current knitting, I can put up a few pictures of some of the yarn, and the awesomeness that is the swift I got for Christmas last year.

Totally beats hand-winding yarn off my knees.

Behold the beauty of tangle free yarn -

And perfectly wound yarn cakes -

These are Knit Picks' Stroll Tonal in Blue Yonder and Thunderhead. I love tonal yarn. Love. It.

OK, here's a little peek of how it's knitting up

All the Knitting, All the Time

Actually, there wasn't a lot of knitting early in the year. I had that crisis in Portland that resulted in these socks:

In February, a girl I work with had twins and it took me a while to decide what to make for them, so I didn't get really going until our trip to Kelowna, when I started knitting the first blanket. I (foolishly?) promised a blanket/sweater/hat set for each of them and I've only just finished it over the holiday weekend. Here are the blankets blocking on the guest bed (my first attempt at steam blocking)-

They are the Honeycomb Stroller Blanket, and I love how they look much more complicated than they actually are to knit. I may have had to block them somewhat severely to keep them from being knitted strips, rather than blankets. When you've got that many stitches on the needles it's really hard to tell when you've got a square. I crocheted a border around to help disguise the rather messy edges and I'm OK with the way they turned out.

 I love this little sweater pattern so much. It's Beyond Pueperium and I liked enough to pay for it - usually I'm all about the free stuff.

 The buttons on the green cardi are little white roses

Unfortunately I couldn't get a good picture of the buttons on the blue cardigan. They are the cutest navy blue airplanes.

The hats are just striped baby hats, with little i-cord knots on the top.

The photos were taken on a table at work as I'm hoping to get them to the babies tonight or tomorrow, and see if any of it still fits. They were born at the end of February and were a couple of months early so I made size 6 months - fingers crossed.

What I'm knitting now is for Christmas so I can't put pictures up or it will spoil the surprise.

SSK

This post is going to mean nothing to a non-knitter so if you want to just scroll back to previous posts about travel, furniture or news updates, I won't be offended.

I've been knitting for just over four years now. I've been knitting socks for just over four years. Oh, the joy of socks. The hypnotic rhythm of 2x2 ribbing, the soothing stocking stitch of the leg, the fun of a heel flap, the cleverness of turning the heel, the intrigue of picking up stitches for the gusset without leaving little holes at the corners and then...screeching halt as we come to decreasing the gusset. The first decrease, the k2tog goes fine, nice tight little right leaning stitch. We knit across the instep and then, then it all goes pear-shaped. For four years I've idly wondered why, when k2tog makes a tidy, even, pretty little column of stitches, the ssk makes this loose, sloppy, ugly column of stitches. Being an intrinsically lazy laid back person I just accepted that the left leaning decrease was going to look like that, and knit on.

Bearing in mind that I taught myself to knit using library books and the odd youtube video, I thought that you always slip a stitch purlwise - that's just the way you do it. Imagine my surprise when I recently discovered that with a ssk you slip the stitches, one at a time, KNITWISE! This tightens up the stitch and you end up with a tidy, even, pretty little column of left leaning stitches.

This may not seem like an epiphany to anyone else but as a committed (dare I say slightly obsessed) sock knitter, this is like discovering you aren't supposed to drive with the handbrake on.

Gingerbread and "What I Bought on my Vacation"

The last of the travel posts, just because I love the Victoriana so very much.

Ferndale, CA

There is a vintage car convention in the area every year around this time, so there were a number of these little cuties spotted.

This was my favourite building - I'm totally in love with those colours and all the detailing.

Even the public restrooms are cute.

This is the yarn I picked up at Foggy Bottom Yarns when we were in Ferndale.

They didn't have any local yarn, but they did have a new shipment of Sweet Georgia Cashsilk Lace, which is 55% silk, 45% cashmere laceweight, in the colourway, botanical. I was havering between this and a purple and I came down on the side of the green since it reminded me of the redwoods we were camping amongst.

When I travel I do try to look out for local yarns when I can. Art of Yarn in Kelowna in May didn't have anything in  that was truly local but they did have Hand Maiden, which is hand dyed in Canada, and which I'd been wanting to try for a while. I bought a skein of Maiden Hair, 67% silk, 23% kid mohair, 10% nylon sport weight, in the Blomidon colourway. It's lovely and sqwooshy.

In March, when we went to Portland, I realised (after it was much too late to turn back) that I'd left my knitting bag by the front door, so the day after we arrived, while David attended some meetings, I googled the nearest yarn store, Wool 'n Wares, and went in for some emergency stash. Turns out that Portland was having a yarn crawl that weekend so they had some really gorgeous local yarn, which I petted and sighed over, but when I asked the price I had to sit down - from $120 to $400 a skein! I quickly bought a ball of Zwergers Garn's Opal Flower Power self-striping sock yarn, a set of 2.5mm dpns and cast on a pair of socks to calm my nerves. 

The next day, our coffee tour with Lora ended near Knit Purl in downtown Portland, so I dragged David in for a quick look. He's so good about going shopping with me.

I bought two really nice skeins of wool in Portland (apart from the Opal) but I can't remember now which one I bought at Wool 'n Wares and which at Knit Purl.

This is Madeline Tosh, Prairie - a 100% merino laceweight in the Cathedral colourway, which I think I got at Knit Purl -

The other is an Oregonian yarn, which I think I got at Wool 'n Wares, after I picked my jaw up off the floor. It's Alexandra's Craft, Baby Silver Falls, a 60% superwash, 30% bamboo, 10% nylon, fingerweight in the Kaleidoscope colourway. I forgot to take a picture of it skeined up but here it is being knitted up. Although I like the way variegated yarn looks in the skein, I usually don't like the way it knits up, but the colours in this were just irresistible. They remind me of an early evening sky. And it really suits the garter stitch.

It seemed appropriate that I use it to finally make the Multnomah shawl (which I'm calling my Keeping Portland Weird shawl).

Unfortunately, I still have a four-row pattern repeat, plus the bind-off to knit, and I only have this much yarn left,

So it's on hold until I can rummage through my stash and see if I can come up with a complementary yarn I can use to finish it off with. I can totally pretend that it's a intentional border. Yeah.

Wendy

Knitting Update - September 2013

It occurred to me recently that I haven't written much about knitting for a while. This is mainly because I haven't done a lot of knitting for a while. Not sure why. Partly this summer was just so hot and sticky that wool didn't hold its usual allure for  me. Also, there was so much going on this summer - both good and bad.

In May the sump pump failed and our basement flooded. We got someone in to rip out the soaked carpet and put in dehumidifiers and fortunately our home insurance paid for this (although, unfortunately, not the cost of a new sump pump). Just when everything dried out we had monsoon-like rain again, and again came down to find water all over the floor. But this time it was coming in one of the basement windows (which is not covered by the insurance) so more carpet ripped up and more dehumidifiers. By the time we figured out why the water was coming in that window the basement had flooded a third time, and we had to pay for a third lot of carpet-taking-up and dehumidifiers.

Not long after the first flood David was away on a short trip and I popped out to the bank. As I was pulling up to the stop sign to exit the parking lot a woman coming from my left tried to pull up to the stop sign as well, without noticing I was there. She plowed into the front, driver's side corner and just seemed to keep going forever. Eventually she noticed she'd hit me and stopped her car - she had a dog in the back seat of her car so I assume it had distracted her because otherwise I can't see how she failed to see me. Her car was hardly scratched of course but my poor car was a mess. I had to really shove the door to get it open as the front panel was buckled.  We exchanged the usual information and she left, both of us thinking I'd just drive home and then contact a repair shop. Unfortunately, when I got back in the car and turned the key, absolutely nothing happened. It didn't even turn over. So I had to get the car towed and in the end it was in the shop for nearly two weeks. Fortunately the woman's insurance paid for everything, including a rental car, but it wasn't good timing at all.

Then our airconditioner failed - twice. During this hot, humid summer.

So not a lot of knitting over the summer.

I did make a fair number of baby things earlier this year for the Washington Adventist Hospital's baby unit.

A few of the hats (the super tiny ones are for the babies born too early)

A few of the cardigans - aren't they cute?

Squishy baby blankets

A close-up of the thermal stitch

A burial gown set

Most of these I knit with my very favourite baby yarn - Bernat Softee Baby - the softest, squishiest baby yarn I've found.

I did do some knitting while we were on vacation.  A pair of slouchy socks for myself from the Verdant Gryphon's "Bugga" I bought at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival in May and a lacy hat for Evie (she declared she doesn't wear socks) from the Miss Babs. The hat didn't take up a lot of the yarn so I still have more than half of it left to make something else.

I cast on a pair of socks for David while we were still in England but only finished the first sock about a week ago. I've cast on the second sock but haven't got very far with it yet.

Earlier in the year I bought enough wool to make David the knitted waistcoat from Jane Austen Knits and Evie has recently expressed a desire for a hooded scarf for when she's traveling this winter.

She also wants these -

(c) Ann Kingstone

 So I really need to get on that second sock and get them done.

Our knitting group at church has reconvened after the summer break and is re-starting our knitting for the homeless project. Last year we collected nearly 200 items so this year I'm hoping we can make it to 300. So now that it's finally cooling down I will hopefully have more on the knitting front to report later in the year.

Wendy

Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival 2013

If you live anywhere in Maryland, Virginia or Southern Pennsylvania and love all things wool-related, you have to go to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival the first weekend of May. I got up at an ungodly hour on Sunday, hoping to make an early start in order to get to the beginning of the "Sheep to Shawl" competition (which starts at 8.00 am for crying out loud!) but sadly didn't get out of the house until after 9.00. The morning started out cool and grey but the day turned beautiful - warm (but not too hot) and beautifully sunny. I understand that some years it's cold and rainy and others it's broiling, (last year was close and sticky) but this year was perfect. I did get there earlier than I did last year so although still had to park in a paddock, it wasn't the north forty.

Fortunately the Sheep to Shawl contestants were hard at it when I got there so I watched them for a while. They start by shearing a sheep (which someday I'll manage to be there in time for) and then part of the team prepares the fleece, passes it to the spinners who then pass it to the weaver to turn into the requisite shawl. They come to the competition with the warp (the long threads through which the spun wool is woven) already on the loom and then weave in the wool as it's spun.  There were four teams, all with different themes: one was "Gone Fishing", one "Garden Party" one all wore blue pjs with sheep on them, and one was dressed in Civil War garb. By the time I came back around to that section of the fair again they were done so I didn't get to see the finished articles but I understand that the Garden Party group won,

 with the Civil War ladies coming in second.

I'd had a look at the list of vendors before I went so I headed straight to the main pavilion where The Verdant Gryphon (previously the Sanquine Gryphon), whose website I've been stalking for some time, and Miss Babs (whose stall is notoriously a madhouse at festivals) were located.

I found the Gryphon first and met the lovely and very helpful Jamie (wearing the Verdant Gryphon's latest pattern, "Balin", a gorgeous knitted coat inspired by "The Hobbit").

I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to decide firstly, whether I should buy two (fairly expensive) skeins at what was, after all, the first vendor I'd visited so far, and once I'd convinced myself I should, which yarns to buy and, even worse, what colours! Finally, after much picking up, fondling, and putting down, I bought a skein of Bugga! in this year's "Experimental Love Child" colourway and Mithril laceweight in the "A Fairy, Kersti & A View of a Meadow" colourway. I'm pretty sure I'll make myself a pair of socks from the Bugga! but will have to decide what to do with the Mithril. Of course that's part of the fun of new yarn.

I then found the Miss Babs stall nearby, which was crowded but, according to a couple of people who'd been there on Saturday as well, not nearly as crazy-making as it had been the previous day. At least I could get INTO the stall. After much more yarn-fondling I found a gorgeous sock yarn called Tarte in tonal reds to make yet more red socks for my Beloved One. Once I'd finished with those two Must-Visits, I just enjoyed browsing the rest of the vendors. Everything sheep or wool related is sold at this event, from the sheep themselves, to tools for caring for them; from fleeces to spun yarn to finished products, and every tool you'd need to produce your finished product.

So there was a vendor who sold shepherd's crooks, others that sold spinning wheels,

uncountable booths offering fibre and yarn, and a few selling finished sweaters, hats or afghans.

There are also the sheep themed vendors

and a few frankly nothing-to-do-with-sheep-but-very-artsy vendors.

 

And there is of course, the food. In addition to the standard fair/festival food, there was sheep's milk products and (whisper) a lot of lamb. Look away now if you are squeamish and/or vegetarian.

When I had exhausted (read, exceeded) my day's budget for wooly goodness I bought myself a pit lamb sandwich and locally made rootbeer and sat in the shade to watch the end of the sheep judging. I particularly loved these two young ones looking earnest while the judges assessed their sheep.

 I went to the festival with a plan; a plan which involved sock yarn. Last year (about which more later) it was all about the spinning fibre, but this year I decided that as much as I love knitting socks, I haven't actually made many over the last year. So in the end, apart from the skein of Mithril, I got the Bugga!, the Miss Babs, a skein of Fiber Optic Yarns' Foot Notes in "Garnet", Blue Ridge Yarn's Footlights in "Mossy Hollow",  four skeins of a natural coloured wool/nylon sock yarn so I can experiment with dyeing this summer,  and...four tomato plants. I know, not exactly sheep or wool related, but they were there and I'd been wanting to buy some heirloom plants, so I got the "Mortgage Lifter" variety (4/$6). Apparently they produce prolifically - and I couldn't resist the name.

Now that I've spent all that money let's hope I do better about using it than last year's loot - twelve lots of spinning fibre I haven't touched since.

I'll try to dig out last year's fibre and take pictures of it, and this year's yarn, for the next post.