Ouch

Yesterday was moving day at work. While looking for empty boxes, I wrestled with a box of paper and managed to pinch a nerve in my lower back. You know the feeling: shooting pains from hip to ankle. It's been a while since I did something like this, but I know the routine: lots of Advil, some stretching, and application of pressure to the resulting knots in my gluteus maximus. A difficult spot to reach but I'm sure my sweetie will help out tonight.

Several years ago, I was flying somewhere (to Tucson?) At one point, a woman several rows in front of me held her knitting up over her head to examine her handiwork. I could see each perfect stitch from where I sat, and I was consumed with jealousy. How did she do that? My stitches tend to look rather haphazard initially (thank god for blocking), and we won't even discuss gauge or laddering between DPNs. Although my knitting continues to improve, and I no longer approach the end of each project with dread (will it look okay? will it fit? will it resemble something other than a bird's nest of yarn?), I still wish most fervently that my handiwork were better.

But I keep trying. Here is a mitten from the Reynolds Lopi Icelandic wool:



If it looks kinda long and skinny, that is because it is. I read in The Knitter's Book of Yarn that Icelandic wool has little elasticity, and Clara Parkes is right; it was like knitting with baling twine, just as stiff and just as coarse. I'm using a free pattern from Lion Brand called "Starter Mittens" but I ribbed the cuff. The pattern says the mittens will fit an adult, but an adult what? I have large hands and on US6 needles, my gauge is a little tight (so what else is new?), and this mitten fits my hand snugly. The thumb is perfect but the overall length is a tad long. In fact, I may undo the end and remove a few rows. Icelandic wool is a bit too scratchy for next-to-the-skin wear, but I expect it to wear well, so these mittens will become my working pair, for shoveling snow, etc.

I finished the garish Magic Socks.



The colorway is "Jelly Bean Stripe" although I didn't quite get the stripes lined up. These look kind of odd but they fit me well (surprise!) In fact, I am wearing them right now. The yarn is sport weight and I used US3 needles, so they went fairly quickly. (From what I understand, LB has discontinued Magic Stripes, but it looks like they still have a couple of colors, including this one, listed on their website.)

And here is the official start of the red-red-red sweater:



After a certain amount of dinking (and tinking) around, I think I am settled on the sleeves at least, at last. I knit the first four rows on straight needles, then started knitting in the round, so there is a little notch in the cuff, allowing the option of rolling the cuff up. I could not face acres of stockinette, so I added the lace pattern "lace diagonal" as described in The Knitting Stitche Bible, just to remind me that I am counting-impaired.

Movin' on Up

Ever since I found out that we are moving upstairs, the theme song from "The Jeffersons" has been running through my head ("Movin' on up/to the eastside/finally got a piece of the pie"). Unfortunately, I don't know most of the lyrics and, much to my lifelong disappointment, I cannot sing. I wish I could sing or play an instrument like it mattered or at least hear what other people hear when they listen to music. I try to catch "The Art of the Song" each week on WUMB, as the show teaches me about what to listen for, as do the interviews with singer/songwriters that occur all over the place on WUMB. Meanwhile, my singing shall be confined to the bruising shower.

The last pair of Magic Stripes socks needs only the kitchener stitch be applied to each toe and they will be done. The color is "Jellybean" and they are rather garish. Tonight I will make another attempt to upload photos to Blogger, so hopefully you will be able to see just how garish they are.

Meanwhile, I strapped on my knitting kahunas and played around with the sleeve to the red-red-red hoodie. I had started one sleeve on US8 needles, but the resulting fabric just looked coarse. So I knit up a bit on another sleeve using US7 needles and it looks much better. Then, since the prospect of knitting acres of stockinette just doesn't appeal to me, I picked out a simple lace stitch to decorate the sleeves. I like the initial results, so I worked out the arithmetic and am now ready to start a "real" sleeve. Gulp!

The pattern I am starting with is the Miss Priss Seamless Hoodie, from Schaefer Yarn, but I am using Cascade 220 instead of Miss Priss. Also, besides being seamless, I plan to knit it in the round, omitting the zipper (obviously) and omitting any purling as well. We'll see how my plans work out. (Someone once said, If you want to make God laugh, just tell him your plans.)

Sock It to Me!

For one of my New Year resolutions, I signed up for a basic sock class at my LYS, but could not wait, knitted some slipper socks, which gave me an inflated sense of confidence, so I started a sock project on my own, the Magic Stripes sock that uses Magic Stripes yarn (natch!) from Lion Brand. Between the Magic Stripes and the class, however, I've discovered I have a lot to learn about knitting socks.

The Magic Stripes sock has been a real... challenge. I frogged my first attempt because I had not swatched and my brand new size 3 Crystal Palace bamboo needles were in reality closer to being size 3.5. The result was baggy ankles.



I restarted with size 2 needles, switched back to the size 3 for the heel flap because the stitches were just impossibly tight, but otherwise am right on gauge. After my eye appointment, I tried to adjust my knitting posture, and my knitting tightened up, so I stopped until I decide what to do. A few nights later I dreamed that I started to frog the sock again, but when I reached the heel flap, I screamed, "No-o-o-o-o!!!" No way was I ever going to do that heel flap again! (Except when I knit sock #2.)



In class we are using an Ann Norling pattern for adult socks (designer: Deridre Wallace). The first thing I noticed was this pattern is more generic than I am used to. The Magic Stripes pattern makes generous use of markers and instructs the knitter to knit to here and knit to there with precision, so one doesn't have to think too much about what one is doing. The Ann Norling pattern, however, uses no markers, so one has to pay attention to what is going on. This is a good thing.

One thing I learned in the first class was how to avoid that little gap when joining ends in circular knitting: on the first stitch when joining, knit both the yarn and the tail for one stitch, then knit them together on the next round. This makes a small but tidy difference.



The second thing I learned is that watching the colors emerge as one knits self-striping socks is mesmerizing. I'm using Online Klaus Koch Supersocke 100 Tropic.

Since the Magic Stripes pattern uses stockinette stitch for the leg, I decided to rib the leg on the Ann Norling, just to be different. And do they look different! The Ann Norling looks like it is made for an anorexic pixie. Yes, it stretches, but not enough for my leg because I am 30 pounds overweight and I have big calves (but not cankles). The socks may fit my daughter, whose weight is just right. We'll see. I am limiting the length of the leg to six inches, just in case.



The heel flaps between the two patterns are different as well. From what I have observed, the Ann Norling method of slip 1, knit 1 on row 1, slip 1, purl across on row 2 is fairly common and produces a nicely padded heel flap. The Magic Stripes pattern instructs the knitter to slip 1, purl 1 on row 2, which creates a very tight, very dense fabric. I found the heel flap so difficult to knit that I actually wrote Lion Brand to find out if this was correct, and they claim it is. I'll be curious to see how the two heel styles feel and whether one outlasts the other.

Regardless of which pattern I am knitting, I am capable of screwing up. The Ann Norling heel flap was much easier to knit, but while turning the heel, I did something wrong (actually, I was trying to talk and knit at the same time, a hazard of knitting with others) and wound up with a lopsided cup. I started tinking, then decided it would be easier to just frog back to the heel flap. Wrong! I spent the bulk of the second class session recovering from that little fiasco, while the rest were flying past the cup and into the gusset. Once home, I gave it a rest, then managed to get back on course.



I tried Magic Stripes sock #1 on this morning and realized I am much closer to the toe than I realized. These are for my SO, and in the course of making them, we discovered our feet are the same length, Yes, along with big calves, I have big feet.