How many days until xmas?

I like to gift handknit socks for xmas, but that means thinking sleigh bells before summer is even over.  It may also mean a false start or two.

A while back, I became frustrated with muddy-looking self-striping yarns, so I purchased a small boatload of Sassy Stripes.  And while I am perfectly content to knit plain vanilla socks, I feel gift socks should be something special.  I selected the Rock-A-Bye pattern from Joy of Sox.  Initially, I liked the contrast of the diagonal columns with the stripes, but the more I knit, the less I liked the stitching.

I don't know what you call it when the purl stitches show through the knit stitches, but I did not like the result, as the stripes lost their crispness.  So let's do plain vanilla.

Ah, that's better!

One clap handing

I got it into my head that I was going to finish the Clapotis by this past Saturday, so that I could wear it to a wedding. So I knit and knit and knit some more, my left shoulder whining "Are we there yet?" all the way.  Friday night, with just the decrease rows to go, I tried on my intended wedding outfit and discovered there was no way I was wearing that sausage casing ensemble.  Quick change of wardrobe plans to something more comfortable meant no Clap at the nuptials, but that was okay because there was no way in hell I could have finished the shawl anyway.  It seems like the decrease rows should take no time at all, but they do, as do the weaving in of the ends and the dropping of the stitches.  I finished it last night while watching pre-season football.

Pattern:  Clapotis
Yarn:  Cascade Yarns Pima Tencel in color 7478, a deep rich red
Needles:  US8, started with straights, switched to circs, finished with straights
Modifications:  none

The thing is huge and, despite its open appearance, warm.  I am looking forward to wearing it this winter, BUT the yarn sheds a bit, so I will have to be careful what I wear it with.

Now, back to those baby things.

Not all baby all the time

I was in the midst of knitting up a pair of baby Blu jeans (pattern may be found on knitty and in Mason-Dixon Knitting)...

... when I had the urge to knit something not baby-related.

This is Clapotis, which also may be found at knitty.  I am probably the last knitter alive who has not made one of these, but when I saw some knit from Cascade Pima Tencel on Ravelry, I could resist no longer.  I purchased the Pima Tencel a long time ago, tried it with several patterns but did not like any of the results.  It seems perfect for a shawl/wrap/scarf thingy because it is quite drapey.

Public Service Announcement: XMAS IS COMING, sooner than you think.  If I want to gift handmade socks again this year, I'd better get going on that.

BTW, the baby shower was a success.  My daughter's BF organized it and helped me clean the house beforehand(!) and decorated.  I cooked up a ton of food that was greeted enthusiastically by the crowd (you'd think these people had never eaten homemade potato salad before).  We ate, my daughter opened a boatload of gifts, we ate some more, then everyone cleared out.  Fun, but whew!

Button, button, who's got the button?

Joanns had a sale on buttons last week - 50% off!  (Joanns is one of those places you should never pay full price.)  So I bought buttons for most of my buttonless baby sweaters.

Of course, the buttons are still not actually on the sweaters yet.  Instead, I started knitting a pair of Blu jeans, from Mason-Dixon   Fun!  But my shoulders do not like knitting with cotton.  I'm not quite sure what it is I do when I knit with cotton, but my left shoulder objects strenuously.

You won't hear much from me this week (like that is anything different) because there is a baby shower happening here next weekend.  Must clean!

Infrequent flier

Sorry for the long silence.  I was out of town, on a combined business/pleasure trip to New England.  The business part was a training class.  The "pleasure" part was more of a family-obligation/aging parent thing.  All I can say about that is, Old age is not for sissies.  It does not get any easier.  Then after I returned home, I got sick.  Diagnosis (so far) is UTI.  I think there may be something else going on, but I'm willing to give the antibiotics a try.

Anyway, knitting did occur while I was gone.  In an effort to travel light, I packed a minimum of yarn, knowing from past experience that I never get as much knitting and/or reading done as I expect to on trips.  I also took a book on CD, so I could "read" while I knit in the hotel(s).

But first, knitting occurred in airports.

I checked the TSA regulations beforehand, but did not see anything about knitting needles.  However, since I was traveling on smallish planes that were full up, I chose not to knit en route because, seriously, there was no elbow room.

Visiting my stepmother in the rehab unit (she is recovering from a broken leg AND hip) proved to be good knitting time, as did watching the Cubs on TV later that night.  (The Red Sox were playing on the west coast - way past our bedtime.)

After a couple of days with family, I changed towns to attend the training.  Per usual, we all had to introduce ourselves, including our hobbies.  That gave me the opportunity to ask if it was okay to knit in class.  The instructor agreed, but sometimes the training was just too intense for me to do so.

The traffic around Boston is just horrendous.  A trip to my brother's house took 30 minutes, but the trip back to the hotel took almost two hours because someone thought it was a good time to do construction and reduced the interstate to ONE LANE.  FOR MILES, even though the construction area itself was short.

After that experience, I did not want to drive anywhere in the evenings, and instead settled in for a good listen to Broken by Karin Slaughter.  The story is so enthralling and the performance so engrossing that I did not realize what I was knitting until I held up the sweater and found I had knit the cuff on sleeve number two without having actually knit the sleeve.

DO OVER.

The next night, I decided I did not like how the sleeves bell, so I reknit the cuffs to include a round of decreases.

And then, in a panic over having something to knit on the way home, I started a pair of leggings.

Some yarn stores were visited as well.  One, the Yarn Basket in Fitchburg, I have visited before.  No surprises there, but I did snag a couple of skeins of pink camo.  Somewhere I have a pattern for a blanket using this yarn.

I also visited Edwina's Knitch in Burlington.  All I purchased was a couple of blanks from Happy Feet, with the intention of dyeing them, even though there was some lovely lavender sock yarn I was pining for.  I had to limit my yarn buying because there was only so much room in my carry-on for anything besides a week's worth of clothes.

For the record, I flew Delta/Northwest through Detroit and experienced no problems or delays.  I stayed at Hampton Inns, which offer free breakfast and high speed Internet and are always clean and comfortable.  Everywhere I went, people were friendly except for one b*tchy lady at the service counter in the Manchester NH airport.  All in all, a successful trip, but I am glad to be home.

EZ experiments

I'm taking a break from BSJs in order to knit up some February baby items, from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac.  Toward that end, I was in the market for some yarn that would produce a gauge of 5 stitches per inch.  The proprietress at Dragonfly Yarn thought sock yarn could be knitted up at that gauge, so I bought some Malabrigo fingering.  Well, ha-ha, there was no way I could get that yarn to produce a decent fabric at 5 stitches per inch.

But, assuming the patterns in question are for babies of post-newborn size, like the BSJs, maybe I could go ahead and knit up the Malabrigo on US2 and wind up with a sweater and leggings for a newborn.  So I did just that.

The pattern for the leggings was easy to translate, as everything was in number of rounds.  The sweater, however, was described in inches.  This was a bit of a conundrum until I decided to go ahead and knit up a sweater in DK (this is Schaefer Lola) at the desired gauge (on US6) and count the rounds per inch and apply them to fingering.

This worked out pretty well, except I ran out of yarn.  Initially, I thought I could just shorten the sleeves, but now I want to find a comparable yarn in a contrasting color for the sleeve cuffs and bottom band and make the sizing "correct".  I was able to determine that two gull pattern repeats equals an inch on this sweater, so I could apply that knowledge to the newborn size.

The experiment would not be complete without also making a set out of sport weight.  Toward that end, I purchased the following from Wandering Cat:

This grandbaby will not be dressed in pinks and pastels alone!

By George, I think she's got it

Does anyone remember the Bog Jacket I was working on?  It stalled where I needed to graft garter-to-garter.  I tried and tried and tried, but it just never looked right.

Then I read on the Techknitting blog that she had written an article for Interweave Knits on grafting, so I purchased the appropriate issue (Spring 2010).  And that is as far as I got.

Now, does anyone remember the purple and pink BSJ I was working on?  That also stalled, at the point where I wanted to add a hood.  The other day I noticed that the A-B-C BSJ pattern I purchased about six months ago included instructions for adding a hood, so I did that.  But then the two halves of the hood needed to be grafted together, garter-to-garter.

So, I bit the bullet and dragged out the Interweave Knits magazine and scanned the article on grafting and, lo and behold, the instructions were so simple even I could understand them.

Voila!

I ran out of yarn, so could not include ties with the attached i-cord finishing on the hood.  And no buttons yet. But at least the knitting is finished.

Pattern:  Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann
Yarn:  Leftover Lion Brand Baby Soft
Needles:  US5 (I think)
Modifications:  Added a hood

There is quite a pile of BSJs in the gift drawer now, so maybe I will knit something different.  For a while.

More squee

I read somewhere that knitting the BSJ in fingering would produce a newborn-size sweater, so I decided to test that theory out.

Is that too small?  I have no idea, but I enjoyed knitting it and love the results, even though it still needs buttons.  (I place buttonholes on both sides because 1) I can never remember which side is for boys and which is for girls, and 2) by sewing the buttons over one set of buttonholes, I can be sure buttons and buttonholes will line up.)

Pattern:  Baby Surprise Jacket, by Elizabeth Zimmermann
Yarn:  Oasis Yarn Aussie Sock in 'Faded Valentine' - 58g/2.0 oz.
Needles:  US2
Modifications:  None.

Pattern:  Infant Socks, by Judy Ellis
Yarn:  Oasis Yarn Aussie Sock in 'Faded Valentine' - 17g/0.65 oz.
Needles:  US1
Modifications:  None.

Next, I will knit a BSJ in sport weight, on US4 needles, to further the experiment along.

Three Two hats in one

Who in their right mind would knit a hat flat?  Only someone who is either in love with seaming or afraid to knit in the round.  So while this pattern called for flat, I knit round.  Consequently, I decreased the number of stitches for each sub-hat by two, to eliminate the seam allowance.  But when I was nearly done, I discovered that there was no way the two hats would nest together, as one was too much too big.  So the offending sub-hat was reknit from stitch one, with a decrease of 8 stitches, which just happened to be the correct number for the funky decreasery.

Pattern:  Reversible Hat by Debbie Bliss
Yarn:  Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, in 340041 and 340018 (lemon and sage - thanks, Yarndex!)
Needles:  US3 circs and DPNs
Modifications:  Knit in the round and not flat; decreased "inner/outer" hat by 2 stitches, decrease "outer/inner" hat by 8 stitches (eventually)

This was my first time with Debbie Bliss anything, and while I think the Baby Cashmerino is overpriced, considering the amount of microfiber in it, I found it attractive and easy to work with.

Road trip!

My SO and I visited Janesville, WI, last weekend, to attend his family reunion.  As is my habit, I scoped out the possibility of an LYS, and discovered the Dragonfly Yarn Shop.  It did not disappoint, and I made a significant contribution to the local economy.

After I made my selections, the owner graciously offered to wind the yarn.  Oh, no thank you, I responded, I like to wind my own.

And you can see what a mess I made of that on skein number one.

Yarns clockwise:  Malabrigo Superwash Merino Sock "Violeta Africana', Malabrigo Superwash Merino Sock 'Abril', Dragonfly Yarn  Shop Hand Spun (merino), and Misti Alpaca Baby Me Boo 'Rosario'.

Squee!

These infant socks are impossibly tiny and just too cute for words.

Pattern:  Infant Socks by Judy Ellis (found here)
Yarn:  Schaefer Anne in 'Powder Puff'
Needles:  US1 DPNs
Modifications:  None to speak of, but I didn't realize that the foot consisted of fewer stitches than the leg, and so the gussets don't quite line up with the toes.

These socks used about 15g or 0.55 oz. of yarn, so are great for those bits of leftovers we sock knitters seem to accumulate.  I have just one question, though:  how does one block socks this size?

No anigurumi here

My daughter was enchanted with the anigurumi dolls in a book from the library, so I decided to give them a try. In a fit of rationality, I bought only one skein of yarn to try only one pattern, to see if I even liked crocheting toys. After an hour or two of hand-cramping effort, I gave up, and in frustration, whipped out the ensemble above.

The pattern for the hat is from the Knitters Handy Book of Patterns, the mittens from here, and the scarf of my own informal design.  The yarn is Caron Simply Soft in "Soft Green" and I used US7 DPNs.

These items are more toddler-sized than newborn-sized, but I had to knit something while waiting to find out the baby's gender.  Impossibly tiny pink socks coming up soon.

It's a girl!

I was going to say, "It's (going to be) a girl!" but it's a fact that will not change with the birth in October.  Anyway, now I know what color yarn to buy for my first grandchild.

Nothing seems to be making it to the FO pile these days.  I was on a business trip last week and took only one project and did not finish it, even though it was a baby HAT.  A reversible baby hat, which is like knitting two hats in one, but still a baby HAT.  You would think I could accomplish at least that much.

Yesterday I took my daughter shopping for some maternity clothes.  The store had a few newborn items as well.  That stuff is TINY!  My kids both weighed over nine pounds, so they never seemed very newbornish.  It is difficult for me to get my mind around just how small babies can be.  It's almost freakish!

Now I have the urge to knit teeny tiny socks.

Do I need a tetanus shot?

I spent part of this holiday weekend at a friend's house, where I knit upon the couch, bag of yarns and sticks at my side.  One of the sticks in the bag was a US3 13-inch straight that I planned to use to cast on a baby hat.  While uncrossing and recrossing my legs, I managed to impale my right calf on said needle, which was poking (ha) out of the bag, point up.  And by "impale" I mean the needle was stuck far enough into my leg to hang there by itself.  Too embarrassed to admit what I had done, I surreptitiously pulled the needle out and slunk off to the bathroom to cleanse the wound, which fortunately did not bleed much.  Remember this story if the TSA confiscates your knitting needles next time you fly; they really can be lethal.

Now, a pet peeve:  splices.  For one baby blanket, I purchased four skeins of Lorna's Laces, two of which were perfect.  While winding the other two into balls, I came across splice after splice after splice.  Some of the splices were across all three plies, but some were in just one ply.  Either way, I snipped them out and restarted winding.  By the time I finished, instead of two balls of yarn, I had eight.

I don't know much about the economies of waste in the yarn business, but when I am paying $20 per skein, I really, really, really would like there to be a minimum number of splices.  Like zero.

Toilet runner

Another FO!  One of those projects that just kind of gets started, then when it is 90% done, bogs down.

All I wanted to do was replace the hand towel on the back of the toilet with something a little bit nicer.  Only by leaving the project by my bedside and committing to four rows a night did this get done.

Pattern:  None.  Just started knitting double seed stitch, but for the bendy places, knit a row of reverse stockinette, and inch or so of stockinette, and another row of reverse stockinette to get it to hang nicely over the ends of the toilet.
Yarn:  Elmore-Pisgah cotton in "Shaded Denim".  For some reason, I bought spools of this stuff a long time ago.
Needles:  US7 straights

Now, time for grandbaby knitting!

The socks are done!

After all my whining about knitting toe up, the pinkish socks are finally finished.  Due to a combination of factors, these took over a month and a half to knit.

Pattern:  Lacy Ribs Socks, from Socks from the Toe Up
Yarn:  Green Mountain Spinnery Spinnery Sock Art "Forest"
Needles:  US1 circs and DPNs
Modifications:  Used the Russian Bind Off; switched to DPNs when I reached the legs.

Neither of these photos do justice to the lovely colorway with its subtle pinks, yellows, and lavenders - it's a gray rainy day here.  As much as I love the color, I'm not sold on the yarn, which is a blend of wool and Tencel.  Not very soft or elastic, and it is supposed to be hand washed.  The socks are still damp from blocking, so I haven't worn them yet.  We'll see how they feel at a future date.  Right now, I am just glad to be through with them.

The neverending socks

I did not knit as much as I had intended during my road trip because, well, I was on the road.  A lot.  I am losing hope that these socks will ever be done.

With top down socks, by the time you reach the foot, things are sailing along because half the stitches are plain old stockinette.  But with toe up socks, you are knitting the pattern all around the leg, which is really bogging me down.  And by now, the pattern is rather boring.  I sit down and do a four-row pattern repeat, and then I want to do something else.

Absolutely no progress was made on the baby blanket during the road trip, but here it is, in its WIP glory.

I am taking today off to recover from my travels, and if the promised rains materialize, they will keep me out of the garden, so maybe, just maybe, I will make some progress on one or the other of these today.  Or I might watch a movie.

Too bad the LYS's are closed on Monday, or I could go yarn shopping for baby knitting.  I purchased the following and now just need some yarn to get going on something new:

Still not much new

I finally made it in for a deep-tissue massage and now my shoulders are feeling much better, so I've been knitting more.  I am finally past the heels of those pinkish socks I've been working on for over a month, and baby blanket number two is about halfway done.  (Baby blanket number one is still in pieces.)  No progress on the back-o'-the-toilet thing - that is one of the culprits that screwed up my shoulders in the first place - but it is in the homestretch if I ever decide to run with it again.

BUT I have a road trip coming up.  Unfortunately, I will be doing the driving, so no knitting then, but I do expect to hit the needles as much as possible while taking a break from the yard and garden.

Not much new

Still getting used to my camera (which, BTW, is a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W330).  There is not much knitting to photograph, anyway.  I have been so busy at work that my lunchtime knitting has fallen by the wayside, and at home, the yard and garden call to me relentlessly.  I am still plugging away, but much more slowly.

Anyway, I had a new Ravelry experience recently:  someone asked to purchase some of my yarn.  I had a half-dozen skeins of Classic Elite Four Seasons (now discontinued) left over from Sitcom Chic, with no prospects for it in sight.  (Besides, one fuschia garment per wardrobe is plenty.)  The purchaser had some of her own Four Seasons, but not enough for her planned project.  Incredibly, mine matched her dye lot.  She offered a fair price, so now I have a few more bucks in my PayPal account and she has the yarn.  Win-win!

I forget where I read about brioche knitting, but I checked Knitting Brioche out of the local library.  It looks like fun, but it also looks challenging and I am not quite up for a new challenge right now.  In fact, I have a lot of challenges, like spinning and dyeing, to name two, that I am not facing.  There are simply not enough hours in the day.

Turn, turn, turn, NOT

The bootie thing is just not working for me right now, so I turned my attention to another baby blanket.  (The first has yet to be seamed, and at this moment, I'm thinking it will probably never be seamed, but instead will magically morph into something else.)  My intention was to knit a garterlac baby blanket, so I traded in the Lorna's Laces left over from the in-limbo baby blanket for a variegated colorway, and started out.  But by the time I reached the end of the base triangles, I had had it with turning the project back and forth and back and forth.  Ugh.  And the colorway was not liking the garter stitch.  Double ugh.

I looked about for an alternative, because the colorway really is luscious, and decided on the twisted lattice motif from Barbara Walker's Learn to Knit Afghan Book.  I tripled the width of the afghan square and knitted up a pattern repeat (24 rows) and definitely like the result.  Except three was not the magical number, as the blanket was too narrow.  (A little foresight and math would have prevented this debacle.)  So I ripped that out, determined to start anew.  And I will, but just not quite yet.

The other projects are creeping along, but I have no progress photos because, once again, the camera batteries are dead and I am tired of feeding that thing two AA's every other day.  I ordered a new camera from Amazon, a Sony W330, which has a 3" display and 14.1 megapixels, but is about half the depth of my current Canon.  It should arrive in a few days, so expect a plethora of pix.