Right here:

Is where I fell back in love with the arch-shaped socks.

The scarf of bad timing

2.5 skeins of Cascade 220 lambswool Peruvian highland merino wool, The Heathers. In green, as you might could tell.

Fisherman's rib over 40 stitches. About 5.5' long. Started in the Boston airport and finished 8 days later. Learned that picking up stitches in fisherman's rib is kind of tricky. Blocked it by hanging it in the bathroom, tying another scarf to the end and tying a spray bottle to the end of that to weigh it down some-but-not-too-much.

Knit for one of my nearest and dearest.

The spirit of the curse

Well. The curse is alive and well. The gift isn't a sweater, it's not for a Boyfriend, and we aren't "broken up," per se. Additionally, the knit itself wasn't the catalyst (indeed, it hasn't even arrived yet), but the timing was spot-on.

Spirit of the curse rather than the letter of the curse.

Needless to say, I'm not doing so hot right now.

Stealthy

I've been single-mindedly knitting myself into a fury, but I have to be careful: the recipient might be watching. Here's a sneaky-style taste:



Slightly heathered emerald green lambswool by Cascade Yarns. Mmm. Soft but not too soft. Man-style.

Will be shipping it off soon (as soon as I get around to taking some pictures of it), and then -- full update.

In the meantime, someone needs to buy me all of this yarn. Especially in the Veilchen colorway. And Poison Nr. 5. Mmmmmm.

Taking a break

The sweater keeps getting bigger, the rows get longer, and I need to... not look at it for a few days.

And the arch-shaped socks? I'm not... entirely positive where they are right now. No, seriously. I think they're in my bookbag from St. Croix... Maybe?

I started some mittens with some Jo Sharp Alpaca Kid Lustre in deep maroon. Not sturdy, but will keep me warm on the way to the car in the mornings. It's going fairly quickly, which is kind of exciting. No pictures yet. Soon, though! I'm thinking that since they're simple I may embroider them a la Lene. (She talks about her methods here).

I also picked up a half-finished handkerchief and finished it up:


(I need to fuss with my camera controls. BOY is that noisy).
(Okay, I'm just excited that I know what that means).

I got some use out of the previously finished one while I was sneezing and snurking through my post-vacation cold, and here are my conclusions:

So much better than the paper towels I'd been using at work. So much better. Of course, so is fine-grade sandpaper, but these made my nose happy.

Pattern for super nose protection (though you hardly need one):

-1 skein KFI Patagonia Nature Cotton makes two handkerchiefs with a smidge left over.

-Size 5 needles (though I tend to knit pretty tightly -- just keep your gauge loose enough to be drape-y but tight enough that they don't, you know, leak).

CO 22 sts (for a larger one cast on 30, but if you tend to carry things in your pockets keep in mind that the larger size can be a little bulky)

Fisherman's Rib:

Row 1: k1p1 all the way across.

Row 2: Sl1, p1, *K into row below, purl, repeat from *.

Repeat row 2 until you have a square-ish shape. Since this is a pretty boingy stitch it's a little hard to tell. Estimate. It's just a handkerchief.

Bind off, weave in ends. Use to cover nose. Blow. Wipe. Snurgle.

If you're squidgy about immediate contact with nose goo then make a lot and throw them in the washing machine when you run out.

If you're not, however, then you can get away with one or two. When it starts getting full of goo then just take it to the sink, give it a rinse, and wring out. It's damp when you use it again, but the cool water feels really nice on a sore nose.

Am I crazy?

I mean, outside of the overt "yarn in the dishwasher" kind of crazy.

Here's why I'm suspect:

I hate ribbing. I mean, I love the way it looks, but omg it's so slow. So slow. I've been thinking about the Kathmandu aran tweed and how I want to make a fairly quick sweater -- I was thinking stockinette, but you know, ribbing might just be too smooshy to pass up.

What's holding me back is that I'm so !! slow at ribbing (it's like seed stitch: I lovelovelove it, but I cringe when I think about how long it takes), so what if I knit maybe half an inch in ribbing, then switch to stockinette, and then when I get to the arm shaping I...

(brace for potential crazy)

drop the stitches that should be purled and pick them up so they're correct for ribbing?

Maybe I'm just forgetting how long picking up stitches takes, but it seems kind of preferable to ribbing a whole sweater.

On the other hand, maybe ribbing a(nother) whole sweater would build character and make me faster for the future. Or maybe it just wouldn't get finished.

What do you mean this isn't normal?

Doesn't everyone have yarn in their dishwasher?



Sizzle got the rip and I had to do something about the kinked up yarn. Option one was to weight the skeins and hang them in the bathroom, and option two was something I heard about from Pixie Purls: putting kinky yarn through the dry cycle of the dishwasher and steam it out. So I tried it!

It worked a bit, though next time I'll stretch the yarn a bit rather than just leaving it in skeins. Either way it's easier than throwing it in the shower.

Knitting through quicksand

Between the trip, Big Phone Calls involving both New and Large Feelings, and this cold that has taken up residence in my sinuses (and occasionally vacationing in my chest) there hasn't been much knitting. There could be if I felt like I could take off work, but I'm taking... six times two... 12 days in the span of about six weeks. It doesn't look so good for me to take more.

I have medicine head. Everything's moving pretty slowly right now.

I worked on the sock on my Charlotte-Miami flight, getting all the way to turning the heel (trying on a knee sock while sitting in an airplane seat = tricky) when I realized that I had no idea how the gusset was supposed to look. I thought it might be stripes, but I couldn't remember and there was nothing I could do. . So I put it away and haven't picked it up since.

It is stripes, by the way.

#46. Always keep a picture of the pattern. Just do. Especially if the pattern's being difficult anyway.

Also, somehow my gauge went from 7 spi to 9 spi, and I have no idea what happened. Maybe it's the switch from circular needles to dpns, but...? Might explain why the size is so off, though...

Anyhoo. Lately I've been working on my Secret Sweater Pattern. I'm using my Knitpicks Andean Silk (sizzle is getting the rip) and it'll be a delightful surprise whether there'll be enough or not. Either way I'm going to have to knit it again, I think. Make sure I know what I'm talking about when I write up the pattern. Decide if I really do like where it's going.

In the meantime, here's a peek:

Good news!

Not dead! Still going!

With the trip and getting stranded in Miami on the way home and having people staying in my apartment this past weekend and some... life craziness, I haven't been able to write (well, knit-based writing, anyway).

I haven't knit much, either.

To come: I did some extreme knitting while I was away, and why you should always bring a picture of a pattern when traveling with WIPs.


(this picture is Definitely Not Staged at All).

Impending radio silence

The socks... are still going. More accurately, the sock is still going, and let's not even talk about second sock syndome, pls.



I increased a bunch and am now working through the decreases (and please do cross your fingers for me) will end right about where the heel starts, which would just be too keen (cue impending knitter god wrath for my Wicked, Wicked Pride¹). It's still a little tight, but not boa-constrictor-esque. The sock's partner isn't going to be a perfect match (at ALL), as I'm increasing/decreasing every 3ish rows.

Here's a 2 stitch increase that I "made up" and used to fix the fact that I forgot to cast on in a multiple of four:



In the same stitch: knit, knit into stitch AND STITCH BELOW, knit. If you use this a lot and/or the stitches are stretched it can result in a little hole that's quite pretty. No idea why it didn't happen here, but I'm not complaining.

At the same time the Mystery Pattern finally arrived:


(click on picture for link to store)

(I have to admit that I wasn't thrilled with the service. It took a week for her to let me know wht my first order didn't go through, and then another 8 days to get to me -- good thing I wasn't too anxious. Also, I got charged $1.50 for shipping when it was actually 87¢, but maybe the extra is for the envelope or similar?).

Thing is... I'm not sure I have enough yarn. The merino/silk I have is dk and the pattern calls for worsted, and the largest size of the pattern requires 630 yards (including underdrawers, which I'm not making), and I have 540 yards (which is what's called for in the next smallest size.

I was thinking that since I'm using smaller yarn I'd make the bigger size (to be double-checked when I do a swatch), but I don't know if it'll work. I may replace the knit straps for ribbon, though, which would free up... YARDS... of... yarn... I hope?

I wish it came with a picture of the back.

ANYhoo, I've also been working on figuring out a sweater pattern. Work, until today, has been really slow and offers plenty of time to sketch and even do some maths. It's a design I saw on a woman in a restaurant, and have never seen anything like it before or since (though it's a tricky search). I've been prototyping with some crap yarn, and hopes are high.

Mysterious? Yes! But I would like to, um, maybe publish it if I can ever figure it out. You understand.

In the meantime, most-if-not-total radio silence is going to occur between this-and-next Thursday because I'll be here:



for this.

St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. Tropical Dance Vacation. A week of contra dancing, tooling around the Caribbean, and rum.

It's my first island vacation without my family, which is going to be strange. I'm staying with a couple of friends, which is brilliant. Scuba diving, snorkeling, getting sun burnt beyond recognition, rum, and diet smashing (rule: only break the diet for something Really Worth It, e.g. biscuits. Or cake. Or -- I should stop).


¹ Hey, have any of you seen "Wicked, Wicked Games"? Isn't it awful??

Poll

What's your favorite way to join yarns? I haven't found one that I really like.

Opinions?

Long strong of expletives

Dear sock:

I hate you so freaking much. It's SO not my fault that I cast on a number of stitches that isn't divisible by four. I don't WANNA start over again!

You are a big dumb jerk.

Hate hate hate!
Emily

How am I going to fix this? It's a good thing I like them so much, because otherwise they'd be a... a... pair of mittens or something. And a hat.

Erg.

When will I learn? The only path to successful knitting is through COMPLETE HUMILITY. There is no room for pride in my knitting room (which is also my living/dining/rumpus room).

I'd figured that one of the reasons I'm such a slow knitter is that I always modify (if not competely invent) patterns. So with the Arch-Shaped Socks I settled into the safety of Following A Pattern Exactly (not the same yarn, but Exact Gauge!). Corrections in hand!

But oh. Oh. Y'all, this is so much work! These socks aren't made for curvy-calved people and do I really want to rip them out completely AGAIN? All the decreases have to be changed because otherwise they're compression socks. Then I have to figure out if it's going to fit my foot if and when I reach the ankle.

*sigh*

If I started over I'd:
1. CO 82(ish) instead of the pattern-suggested 80.
2. Increase to 84 (or 86?) after the top band.
3. Knit to where my own personal calf starts to get smaller, THEN start decreases.
4. Do 2 decreases every 4 rows instead of 4 every 7 rows (decreasing stripies on the back of the sock instead of on either side like in the pattern)(maybe).

I think that's all. I guess. But I've already started the damn thing twice; the thought of doing it again is pretty dispiriting.

In the meantime, fifteen of these just arrived:



Edit:
I started over. I had to. It's just one of those things. So. After some whimsical math involving the supposed strechability of the stitches* I'd need to increase 12 stitches... I can do that...?

These had better be some damn comfy socks.

Edit the two:
Damn. I measured stretchability for corrugated ribbing when I need to do it for stockinette. Foiled...

*If 82 sts fits around the 14" below the knee, and the gauge indicates that 14" at 7 spi means 98 stitches, so there's a stretch of 1.14% or something like that, so 112 sts (widest part of my calf at 16") divided by 1.14 (or whatever) means that a comfortable number of stitches should be 94. Ish.

I totally pulled that out of my ass. Let's see how it goes.

By popular demand...

The roving is from Hello Yarn in her dried flowers colorway. It's luscious...

I've been tagged for the first time by Kiwi Knitter! Yee haw. As a result all you unsuspecting folks get to learn:

6 Weird Things About Me!

1. Most of my friends are older than me. Ranging 1-20+ years. Generally, people my own age drive me crazy. It also has to do with the fact that my main source of entertainment (outside of knitting) is contra dancing, and the median age of the dancers in my area is, oh, 45. Ish.

2. I firmly believe that salad is a finger food. Maybe not dressed salad, but I prefer to have the dressing on the side and use my fingers to dip leaves. Trying to eat salad with a fork is unnecessarily difficult.

3. I prefer lovers to boyfriends. I have no intention of settling down anytime soon and with my travel plans (back abroad in Septemberish for... some months) it seems futile to initiate a relationship with an expiration date. Besides, I like my time alone, and I like jaunting off for the weekend without clearing it with someone else (not that I'd have to, I'm just sayin'). Also, I'm too busy for a relationship, I l-o-v-e flirting, I'm wild about my lovers, and I get all the emotional lovin' from my friends.

4. I create wild scenarios in my head all the time. One cross word with someone and my mind goes off on an imaginary argument with them, sometimes making me even more annoyed than I already am. Or I'll hear a creak in my room late at night and all of a sudden I'll be envisioning a guy with a hatchet or similar, and I'd ponder what I'd do -- play sleeping? Jump up and scare him? Sneak my phone under the covers and call the police? And sometimes I'll see someone cute and my mind really takes off.

Maybe I should've stuck with writing fiction...

5. I'm the only person I know who can go on a diet, follow it (fairly) strictly, and gain weight. Yeah. THAT feels good.

6. I can't remember names. I have some kind of freaky mental block where I barely even hear the names anymore, it just comes out "Hi, I'm KSSSHHHHHH." And I'll smile and say, "I'm sorry, what was your name again?" and they'll say, "It's KSSSSHHHHHHH." And I'll smile broadly and never use their name again. I have a lot of conversations with my friends that go as follows:

Them: Is Martin single again?
Me: Um! Which one's Martin?
Them: That one, [pointing to someone I've danced with for years].
Me: ...His name's Martin? Really? ...huh...

Same goes for place names. Street names. Dates. Birthdays. Even things I've known forever gradually leak out. My best bet is to associate that person with someone of the same name. If their name's Brian then I'll associate them with my friend Brian, or with the dog from Family Guy.

This was actually kind of difficult because everything I do seems normal to me. I had to keep reminding myself that just because I do it doesn't mean everybody does it.

And since this is a knitting weblog,

7. I buy roving even though I don't spin. Yet.

More errata than you can shake a magic loop at

By some stroke of unbearable brilliance I managed to remember to check for pattern corrections BEFORE starting the arch-shaped socks (I never remember to do this). I clicked into the Vogue Knitting website, found the right issue, and lo and behold, errata!

"Replace entire pattern."

...oh! Okay.

After a frustrating adventure trying to find some stupid yarn I settled in with some friends on a lovely MLK day.

It starts with k1p1 ribbing in black (actually green, but looks black) (I'm not ruining their pattern -- you can find it here; it just doesn't have the colorwork graph). Then you switch to corrugated ribbing¹, but it said that you start with p1k1 which... didn't make sense. More than that, it said the purls were white which, stylistically, struck me as being... wrong. Since the white stands out wouldn't you want it as the knit stitches for smoothness? And what was with starting with purl instead of knit like last time?

So I checked the picture. I looked. I looked again. I looked closer. I confirmed my suspicions with Kate and Andrea. They agreed.

The socks in the magazine are different. Not only from the pattern, but from each other. You can almost almost see it in the pic I posted yesterday: on the left sock the top white stitches are purled. On the right they're knit.



I thought of Elizabeth Zimmerman and her instruction that patterns are not always set in stone (though I, personally, wouldn't want to fuss much with, say, a lace shawl), and decided I knew what I was doing and ribbing smibbing. After the first row I slipped the first stitch from the left needle to the right so I could still start with p1k1 as the pattern inexplicably recommends, and the white (or, in my case, purple) stitches got knit.

So neener neener neener!

I knit away, using magic loop for the first official time. It's okay, this magic looping, but I have to work harder to keep ladders from happening.



I could see how it'd be excellent for travel, though. I'm forever dropping dpns. With the basic socks I tend to knit dpns make it easier for me to know where I am in the pattern. Anyway!

When I got to, say, two inches of knitting I tried it on. A problem with the pattern is that there's one (oh yes one) size. And if you were to look at the model's calves and then look at my calves you might notice that mine are, say, bigger. Curvy! And what's a curvy girl to do?



Why, add to the stripey section! I added four stitches total which will maybe be enough? The two black stripes closest to the back of the sock were changed to 2 sts wide instead of 1. Here's how it went:



That's much easier than describing it. If I were interested in frogging I'd just add another black-and-white stripey to each side, but I wasn't. Interested.

On again! I followed the colorwork graph, feeling all clever-style, and then realized that I'd screwed up. I'd continued diamonding when I should've started wide-striping. I'd have to tink back. Oog.

After some Kate-and-Andrea consultations I decided that it was a Design Element, it was Inspiration, and I Liked It Better, which I actually do. Tink shmink.

THEN I got to the calf decreases and realized it doesn't tell you if the decreases are done in black or white. Turns out it's black. I'm not sure if I agree with that, but it's what I'm working with, so that's the way it'll be. Unless I really do frog and do it all from scratch, knowing what I know now. But considering all the problems it might be better just to finish, THEN decide if I want to start over (at which point the answer will be "HELL no! You think I'm crazy?!").

It's a sexy, sexy sock, though. Problems and all.

UPDATE:
I tried it on. It's too tight. Aw. Frog pond time.


¹ Corrugated ribbing is ribbing where knit stitches are one color and purls are another.

Full of knit

I finished the socks! They lost a lot of their sheen when I washed them, though. Picot edging, sock was over my usual 80 sts, slip stitch heel.



Claudia Handpaint in Just Plum. 100% Merino. Size 1 needles (I think...).

Neck warmer that needs buttons (inspired, of course, by Brooklyn Tweed).



One skein Blue Sky Alpaca Bulky in polar, size 13 needles, though I probably could've gone up a size or two.

Potential Handkerchief:



Less than half a skein of KFI Patagonia Nature Cotton, fisherman's rib, size 5 needles.

AND! The socks!



Delicious... The purple is actually a bit deeper than that, but whatever whatever.

If I keep this up I'm going to have to renounce my title of "slowest knitter."

Ridiculous

So I've knit up 1.5 potential handkerchiefs with Nature Cotton. I used fisherman's rib because it's cushy and seems like maybe absorbent? We'll see how it goes, but I'm cautiously, moderately optimistic.

I've been floundering a bit lately because I'm fighting to get a sweater's worth of Queensland Kathmandu Aran Tweed, and let me tell you, it's not as easy as it seems.

Well, not if you're semi-cheap, like me. Observe the ridiculous:

Queensland Kathmandu Aran Tweed = Jo Sharp Silkroad Tweed. Same content, same colors -- it's the same stuff. What's different is that 1. Silkroad tweed is easier to find (i.e. Webs has it), 2. Kathmandu has more yardage, and 3. Silkroad is more expensive.

I -- hang on. According to the Jo Sharp website there are 104 yards/ball, but according to Webs it's 93 yards/ball.

...what?

Even if Webs'd mistakenly put yards when they meant meters they're still off by 3 yards...

I emailed Webs. Stay tuned for inevitable excitement (though it's looking like the correct yardage is 104).

REGARDLESS, Silkroad (retailing about $8.50/ball) is still stupid more expensive than Kathmandu (retailing about $7/ball). But! On ebay it's $5.75/ball, and they're ordering some for me, so danceity-dance.

(Quick secret: I am totally falling in love with white tweeds. Esp. kathmandu/silkroad in goose. I could chew on it with love. Nahm nahm nahm...).

(I should probably wait to buy more, though, since I'm already getting a sweater's worth in jewel. Right? Should probably wait? Maybe? Or maybe go directly to goose, bypassing jewel? A puzzlement...).

So I'm waiting on that, but got impatient. The one full skein of sock yarn I have wasn't inspiring me (I have a pair of socks made with that color already), none of my stash was Speaking to me, until I realized! The perfect pattern for the buttery, buttery, luscious pink/light brown silk/merino blend deliciousness I got at SAFF!

And I ordered the pattern online, but they're mailing it to me and I have to wait (but I want it NOWWW). This didn't much help me in the manner of "immediate gratification," so I went through my magazines and -- oh yes!



Arch-shaped stockings by Meg Swansen, VK Fall 2006.

I went with two of my local knitterly friends and learned the hard way that the yarn store near where I work -- well, it's not very good. Most of their sock yarn is Opal patterning (ick), the varigated sock yarn is expensive, their color selection isn't very good, and, well, they just don't have much.

I knew that already, but this was sad. I had a skein of Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino which got gauge (7spi) on size 2 needles), but they didn't have any cream/white colors of baby cashmerino and they didn't have any regular cashmerino at all.

I had a beast of a time finding anything that might get gauge, and finally settled on Laines Du Nord Dolly something or other. Worsted. Whatever. So I picked up a nice deep purple and gray but then realized that the gray was more expensive by about a dollar.

What?

I asked the local yarn lady and she said it was likely that it was more recent and Laines Du Nord had probably upped the price, and so they had to as well.

This was annoying.

I ended up with black and purple which, while very pretty, doesn't show the pattern terribly well, but I was desperate. I'm really enjoying the pattern, even if it is a bit of a challenge. More on that later.

#45. I am so much happier with a long term project and a couple of short term projects than I am finishing a bunch of little things in a short period of time. And now I have 3 large projects: an impending sweater, knee-high socks, and the Secret Project.

BRILLIANT!

I have two skeins of Nature Cotton that I got as a dyeing experiment before realizing that I didn't feel like doing all that was necessary to dye cotton (seems that wool is much easier). So what to do with the cotton? I couldn't think of (or find) any good patterns, it wasn't enough for a tank top or similar, so it just sat. And sat.

Then I was skimming Knittin' Notes' entry for today in which she mentions a kerchief.

It -- I -- YES! Yes of course! Of course!

See, I get allergies in the spring. No namby-pamby sniffles here, this stuff is wicked. I was at a party last spring and a friend thought I was drunk because I was so wrecked with snurgling and space-y-ness. Seriously.

I always go through a ton of tissues (my freshman year of college I tied a box of tissues to my belt because I needed so many so often), and every year I think that I should get some decent handkerchiefs so I don't ruin my nose (as much) on paper tissues (even the ones with lotion grate on my poor shnoz after a while). And every year I forget.

BUT! This year I will knit handkerchiefs! The yarn is soft! Hopefully absorbent! It will be oh-so-useful!

I am excited.

(Does anyone have any reason why this wouldn't work? I figure it'd be good to know that now...)

Quick like bunny

If you want 12 skeins of Dale of Norway Sisik then you should act soon! The bidding ends around 1pm today!