A little road trip

I bought a new car and wanted to take it on a long enough trip to test out some of the features. And so my SO and I traveled down to Decatur for their sculpture tour, then bopped over to Bluffton to view a yarn bombing. I can't find much info about this particular event, but a lot of hookers crocheted a lot of yarn to make this happen.

I admit I don't think much of yarn bombing - it seems like a waste of perfectly good yarn. Some of these objects were made with cotton yarn, some with what I am guessing is acrylic or an acrylic blend. But at least one was of felted wool.

I used to crochet - a lot - mostly afghans, so I recognized most of the stitches and patterns, particular granny squares.

But some were a puzzlement. Is this crochet or macrame?

Almost nothing was safe from yarn, including the supports for hoops. If it was roundish, it might get bombed.

In the past, when I imagined yarn bombing, I pictured a bunch of knitters standing by a tree or pole, knitting in situ. From inspecting these works, it was apparent the crocheting occurred elsewhere, then the pieces wrapped around their intended target.

All this yarn bombing is at Washington Park (310 E Ohio) in Bluffton, Indiana, and is slated to continue through August. If you are in the neighborhood, be sure to stop by.

While I doubt I will become a yarn bomber, seeing a display such as this expands my ideas for just what one can do with yarn beyond socks and sweaters. It might be nice to look out my window on a dreary winter day and see a splash of color in the garden.

Finally, an FO

My "inch by inch" plan quickly fell by the wayside. Too much yardening to attend to, plus fiber art feels more like a winter activity. However, I did finally manage to finish a pair of socks.

Pattern: A Sock Recipe, by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Yarn: Patons North America Kroy Socks FX, colorway 'Clover Colors'
Needles: US1
Modifications: None to speak of

I think I have happened upon a method for eliminating the gusset gap at heel turns. Basically I continued the in-the-round knitting early, completing the final row of the heel turn from the opposite side. This prevents having an extra row to deal with, which is what creates the gap. That brief explanation probably doesn't make sense; hopefully sometime I will produce a tutorial for it.

These are for a friend. While I ordinarily knit toe-up, I knit these top down because I knew I would be seeing her mid-project and I wanted to take a gander at her feet before completing them. My brain must still be functioning, as I was able to recall the Kitchener stitch without too much effort.

Inch by inch

I admit I am struggling a bit to make any progress on knitting. I do have an excuse, though: the garden and yard. Also, granddaughter. And dog. And I'm in the process of buying a new car.

Top down, fingering

In an effort to finish something fiberish, I've committed to knitting an inch a day on one pair or the other of these two pairs of socks.

Toe up, DK

Ordinarily, I cannot work on two pairs of socks at the same time because I have only enough US1 needles for one pair. But the DK socks are knit on US2 needles. A flaw in my self-limiting knitting strategy there.

Gifting quandary

My general philosophy regarding gifts of any kind is that, once they've been given, the recipients are free to do what they will with them. This means they can spend gifted money however they see fit, put gifts on display or in the attic, or even re-gift the gifts if they want. Once the gift is out of my hands, it must be let go.

About a year ago, I gave a friend a handknit dishcloth made of inexpensive cotton. The yarn wasn't even freshly purchased, just some leftovers I had laying around. Still, I was a bit taken aback when she IG'd that she had unraveled her "favorite dishcloth" to satisfy a late night knitting urge.

According to my gifting philosophy, this is perfectly okay. But when I considered giving her another handmade gift this year, I paused. Was I going to be putting hours of work into something that might subsequently be deconstructed?

Has this ever happened to you? Do you have standards regarding who is knit-worthy? What kind of recipient reaction crosses the line when it comes to handmade gifts?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Summer slow down

I'm not much of a knitter during the summer except for cotton. This year not even cotton is calling to me. There are several projects on the needles, several more on looms, lots of ideas floating around, etc. But there are also end-of-school-year events and gardening and dog walking and gardening and car shopping and gardening.... You get the idea. Hopefully, I will be posting some FOs soon. Enjoy your holiday weekend!

Helical yes!

Another pair of tube socks for my g'daughter, from leftover yarn. When it became apparent I would not have enough of the self-striping 'Jollyville', I decided to give helical stripes another try.

Pattern: Short-row toe and heel basic socks, by Wendy D. Johnson
Yarn: Simply Socks Yarn Co Poste Yarn Striping, in 'Jollyville' and Simply Sock in 'Silver Lining'
Needles: US1
Modifications: tube socks - no heel

While knitting helical stripes is fun, I'm not sold on the look of them, perhaps because of the color combinations I have ended up with. The jog between color changes in the self-striping yarn is more apparent, too.

I do like to match the stripes when using self-striping yarns, which eliminates counting rows. One error I made this time, however, was to cast on the toes at a color break, which meant the woven-in end did not match. Oh, well! Wabi sabi!

Oz revisited

Still procrastinating. This time I decided to knit my g'daughter some socks with the leftover 'Oz' yarn. The problem was her feet have grown. For my socks, I knit rounds of 72 stitches, for her mom rounds of 64 stitches, so I took a gamble and made g'daughter's socks rounds of 56 stitches. I also knit them as tube socks - no heel - so theoretically she will be able to wear them for years.

Pattern: Short-row toe and heel basic socks, by Wendy D. Johnson
Yarn: Simply Socks Yarn Co Poste Yarn Striping in colorway 'Oz' and Simply Sock in 'Silver Lining'
Needles: US1
Modifications: no heel

I started these socks multiple times, once before realizing there was not enough 'Oz' yarn for a full pair, then several times as I tried to knit helical stripes, first with 'Silver Lining' then with 'Natural', but neither worked for me. Finally I settled on bands of rainbows interspersed with bands of 'Silver Lining'.

They are a trifle large, but I anticipate g'daughter will continue to grow. Children tend to do that, ya know.