Oh, Great

I've been a new mother-in-law for less than a week, and while the happy couple is on their honeymoon, I am pet-sitting. The cats are fine, but I managed to kill all the tropical fish. I talked to the SonIL's sister, and she thinks I overfed them. If you overfeed cats or dogs, they just get fat, but fish won't overeat and the leftover fish food contaminates the water. Wish I had known that before I killed them all. *sigh* Not off to an auspicious start, are we? I wonder if this gaff offsets the socks or hat I made him.

I am having better luck with knitting than with fish, and finished the more-than-one-skein shawl. It turned out kind of smallish, but I was tired of knitting an acre of stockinette. I used two skeins of Cascade 220, plus about 25% of a third for the border.

Here it is, awaiting blocking...



... and here it is pinned out ...



... and the finished product.



I'm going to add a button or a pin or something, to keep it from sliding off my shoulders.

In the interest of stash-busting, I pulled out an old UFO and started unraveling the yarn for a new project (with a little help from Hip Hop.)



While four hanks await dekinking, I went ahead and started a rectangular shawl with one of the other balls. Feeling brave, I decided to wing it by using a lace stitch pattern from The Knitting Stitch Bible, "Falling Leaves". The tentative plan is to knit the rectangle, then maybe add a border in a different lace stitch.



(I tried to take a close-up of the stitch pattern, stetching out the fabric with my fingers, but then you would have seen a close-up of my wrinkly gardener hands. Not a pretty picture!)

I was afraid using Plymouth Yarn Encore Worsted for a lace shawl might be a mistake because, with its high acrylic content, it may not block nicely. But since I am using US7 circulars, the knitting feels relaxed enough that blocking might not make that big a difference anyway. We shall see!

Not a Fan of Bamboo

I keep telling myself to give away my bamboon DPNs. If the air is at all humid or my hands are damp or sweaty, the needles get sticky. Sticky needles make for tighter knitting. In this instance, the result was sock #1 being a bit larger/looser than sock #2, 3g worth. I could tell the difference, especially when I turned the socks inside out to weave in the ends at the toes, but my SO says he can't, that the socks feel fine. Still.



The pattern is "Men's Grey Socks," free from Lion Brand. I used the recommended Wool-Ease, which feels kind of icky after working with Cascade 220, but I'm stash-busting. I also "clarified" the pattern and will publish my "adjustments" once I have verified them with a second pair, which I have already started. These are in "Oxford Grey" while the next pair will be in "Rose Heather" and are for me.

I do like knitting socks in worsted weight yarn, though. Takes no time at all!

Chloe's Birthday Bag

It's Chloe's birthday! She likes green, and this bag is really green. It's the Exchange Bag pattern from SnB's Happy Hooker.



The "yarn" is Hilos La Espiga Nylon no. 18, which is really a nylon cord that is a killer to work with, but the results were worth it.



I'm a little embarrassed at how long it took me to complete this project (see start). Actually, the crochet did not take all that long, but I kept putting off adding the lining because I am not much of a seamstress. While procrastinating, I took my sewing machine in for a tune-up, which was a good thing, but then wound up handsewing the lining.



The photo doesn't do much justice to the lining - it actually looks much better than this, adds a touch of class to a casual bag.

Dog Days of Summer

I would feel bad about not posting more often except that many of the blogs I read regularly are similarly on summer hiatus. But I have been knitting!

Just finished these, for my daughter's fiance:



They match! Self-striping sock yarn is fun but getting the socks to match is funner.

Here is a burp rag to go with the baby bib:



So now Grandmother Petersen has a matched set when Keegan comes to visit:



See Mason-Dixon Knitting for how-to.

I just could not send off the no hair day cap without something more normal, to show I am not completely whacko and just trying to use up the Fun Fur.



The pattern is from 2007 Knitting Pattern-a-Day Calendar. July 24 describes the "Channel Island Cast On" which creates this nice picot edging.



I had to practice this a few times before getting it right. Then July 25 provides the pattern for "La Mancha Watchcap" which is a relatively easy lace pattern.



This exhausts the Unknown Lavendar Yarn. I bought this soft, silky, acrylic baby yarn with the intent of using it for chemo caps. One baby cap, 5 premie caps, and one chemo cap later, all that remains is 3 grams. The yarn band is long gone, but the next time I am in Joann's, I will try to figure out just what it was.

My sweetie has been busy, too, concocting this swift from a photo. Not bad for not really knowing how a swift works. I tried it out so he could see it in action, and now he is making refinements.



This yarn is skein 3 of the so-called one-skein shawl. This is on purpose. I wanted a nice and easy, no-brainer project, using nice yarn on size 7 needles, and I knew I would need more than one skein of yarn. After two skeins, I took the shawl off the needles, to see if it was ready for the border (it is), but I used the same black yarn to thread through the stitches, and now am having trouble getting the shawl back on the needles. But I shall prevail!

No Rules

Maybe it's because I am a Libra, but I tend to be very rule conscious, which gets me into trouble when knitting. I want to follow the directions exactly and produce exactly what the picture shows.

Well, knitting (and life in general) does not work that way. So, when I found myself starting and restarting what has to be the simplest pattern ever, I had to ask myself, What is your problem?!?

The pattern, from Mason Dixon Knitting, is for a baby bib. It is all garter stitch. The pattern says cast on this many stitches and knit this many rows, then do this and do that to create the straps.

First deviation: I thought the book said "Sugar and Cream" cotton yarn, but it said "Peaches and Cream". I like to try new yarns, so often try to find exactly (that word again!) the same one used in the pattern. I have never used Sugar and Cream, though, so I guess my personal rule is unbroken.

Second deviation: When I cast on the number of stitches, even on a needle one size smaller, I ended up with something that was destined to be 11 inches wide instead of 6.5. Since I find cotton yarn difficult to knit, due to its inelasticity, I decided I would just cast on fewer stitches, like 30 instead of 40.

Third deviation: Throwing caution to the wind, I made the wild and crazy decision not to count rows, but just knit until the piece looked squarish.

Fourth deviation: I'm on a roll now. I made the straps only 7 stitches wide instead of 10. And instead of measuring them, I made them the same length as the bib portion. And I put in three buttonholes, to make it adjustable. And I used a different method to make the buttonholes (the pattern said I could, so I guess this is not really a deviation).



Tada! But I'm not going to use that yellow button - it's too yellow.

And I completed Magic Stripes sock #1. It is a bit snug, but after blocking should be just right.

The Agony of Defeat

I am crying "Uncle" on the mango baby hoodie. There I was, in the homestretch of construction, when I unmindfully seamed the hood and equally unmindfully attached it to the body. Nothing was centered correctly, which is not new for me, but somewhere along the line, while procrastinating on finishing this project, I had started to weave in ends, including the ones I now needed to unweave and unsew. I tried several times to undo my work, but I just could not find the right places to undo. I did find some wrong places to undo, though, unraveling some knitting that did not need unraveling. The splitty Lion Brand Microspun did not help the situation, either.

My daugher has suggested in the past, when I complained about a particular knitting project, that I just not finish it. That goes against my grain, but this time I think I will take her advice. I have allowed this baby hoodie to stand between me and new projects I have wanted to start, but no more. It will go into the yarn leftover bag, to be dealt with sometime in the unforeseeable future.

Whew. I feel better already!

Yearning for Yarning

After expressing my JIT stash philosophy in the previous post, I was a little surprised to find myself on a mini yarn crawl.

What started it was learning that Lion Brand is discontinuing their Magic Stripes yarn. The last time I was in Hancock's, they had a somewhat extensive selection of Magic Stripes, so I wandered in there the other night, just to see if there was any left. And there was nary a skein to be found.

But Joann's is just around the corner, so I stopped in there as well. No sock yarn of any kind, but I did pick up one ball of Sugar and Cream, just for comparison purposes against Lion Cotton. And a pair of US15 29" circular needles.

I did look around a bit in both stores, but did not see any yarn that excited me, just the same old Fun Fur and Wool-Ease and Homespun. I miss the LYS. Yarn can be bought online, but there is just something about seeing the colors in natural light and feeling up the skeins.

*sigh*

JIT Stash

Many knitters and crocheters (and sewers) have the habit of buying more yarn (and material) than they can ever hope to knit or crochet (or sew) in a lifetime. I found myself heading down that path, but I am not a natural hoarder nor am I a collector. Also, I live in a small house and I get claustrophobic when the walls close in, even if they are walls of yarn.

So I make up stash rules, like a yarn purchase must be for a particular project. But what about sock yarn? One hundred-gram skein or two 50-grammers will make a pair of socks, and a pair of socks is a project, right? Never mind that I currently have enough yarn for at least 5 pairs of socks. Maybe that is why I feel compelled to always have a sock project going, so I can use up the current sock stash and buy some more.

Several times I have visited an online source of sock yarn, loaded up my virtual shopping cart (it's all on sale! except that gorgeous cherry red), then stopped short of completing the order. Must Use Stash is my mantra, because it doesn't take much stretching of the stash rule before I'm buying yarn like it will never be available ever again.

But even though there are plenty of non-sock projects in the queue, I nearly broke down when I came across this shawl. I downloaded the pattern and filed it with the six million other patterns I have downloaded, and I went to a website where they sold the yarn in smaller-than-one-pound-spools and I started filling that shopping cart... BUT all the colors I needed were not available, which causes a stutter in the process, enough of a stutter that I did not complete the transaction.

While taking deep, gulping cleansing breaths, I calmed myself by thinking how that shawl will make a nice winter project.

So I'd better finish up everything else by then!

Slow Going

The sweater-shawl is bogging down. That's the problem with a triangular-shaped garment - each row gets longer and longer and longer. I'm up to 205 stitches and it takes me almost 20 minutes to knit one row, purl one row. Progress is slowing to a crawl.

The striping sequence on the Magic Stripes sock is definitely repeating, so that is good news. I have discovered a "new" way of knitting, so to speak: since the widths of the stripes are variable, instead of thinking "I'll knit three more rounds," I pull out all of the next color and knit that up, then decide if I want to do another color. It's more fun that way. (Like I've said before, we knitters are easily entertained.)

Wrongway Peachfuzz

My proclivity for making at least one wrong turn on road trips has become a family joke, and it looks like I am continuing the tradition with my knitting. On Magic Stripes sock #1, I managed somehow to cast on only 54 stitches instead of the 56 the pattern calls for. Part of the blame lies with the missing DPN, as I think if I had been using 5 needles instead of 4, I might have detected the problem before I reached the gusset. No do-overs, though. I will just continue with 54 stitches, and adjust the toe decreases accordingly.



The sock colorway is called "Denim Stripes" and I was thinking it would be nice to make the socks match. I knit round after round, without seeing a repeating pattern to the stripes, though, until - at last! - nearly done with the gusset, I think I see the right color sequence coming up.

This sock is knitting up really quickly, and I was wondering why. Well, duh, the sock yarn is not fingerling but sport weight.

Oh, and an FYI on anyone using the Magic Stripes sock pattern from Lion Brand: the number of rows for the heel flap should be 38, not 28.

Lost in Space

Ordinarily, I do not lose things. I may not be able to put my hands on something right at the moment I want it, but eventually whatever I am looking for turns up. Until now.

I inadvertently dropped a CD into the book return at my local library branch, a CD that did not belong to the library and did not belong to me. I didn't realize it did not belong to the library until later, when I told my SO I had returned it to the library. Well, it was his CD. No problem, I thought. I will just get it back from the libary. But over a month has passed and it has not turned up. (And the last librarian with whom I spoke about the CD got a little huffy when I hinted that someone may have "wanted to listen to it", as if all library employees are above reproach.)

About this same time, my clip-on sunglasses disappeared. Since I paid $80 for these, I am usually anal about putting them back in their case when they are not on my face. I think I may have left them by the stamp machine at work, but by the time I figured this out, they were not there. If they had ever been there. I put the word out at work, cleaned out my purse and my car, checked sweater pockets, etc., but never recovered them. I have been wearing a big goofy pair that came with a plastic beach pail and shovel, black with lime green stems. Their advantage is they fit over my regular eyeglasses. But maybe I should just give up hope and buy some new (cheap) clip-ons.

And now I find I lost a bamboo DPN, so the set of 5 is now a set of 4. It may have crawled away when I was switching from the bamboo needles to metal ones - the bamboo ones seem to pick up moisture when it is humid and yarn sticks to them. I looked under the couch cushions, under the couch, under and on top of the coffee table. Nada. Did the dog chew it up? Did it fall into the waste basket? It seems to have vanished into thin air.

But having only 4 DPNs did not stop me from using them on a new pair of socks. It's not like I was enjoying the last sock, which is still matchless. But I just feel better having a pair of socks in the works. And these are from Lion Brand Magic Stripes yarn. Magic Stripes is not the most beautiful self-striping yarn around, and from what I understand, it is being discontinued, but it is what I had on hand and I've knit the pattern before so it shouldn't be too challenging. And there is just something about self-striping yarn that makes it fun to knit. (Knitters are so easily entertained!)



I'm hoping to match up the stripes between sock 1 and sock 2, but I am halfway through the cuff and haven't seen a pattern repeat yet.

And the menopause shawl is tootin' along. Working the Cascade 220 yarn on US7 needles in 99% stockinette stitch has been a simple pleasure. It is an easy project to pick up and put down, and there is no stitch counting except the occassional check to make sure I haven't forgotten a YO. After the initial rush, when the rows started to become a bit long and boring, I was tempted to introduce something fancy here and there, but resisted the urge because I really want this to be something non-challenging.



Although I am using a one-skein shawl pattern, this will take at least two skeins because of the smaller needle size.

Summertime and the knittin' is easy....

It Will Fit Somebody

My friend L planned to knit each of her children and their SOs hats this past xmas. She found appropriate patterns, carefully selected fine yarns, and set to work. But the projects were a bit beyond her skill level. I helped her (via email) through hat #1, which she knit about six times before getting a lumpy finished product. This struggle reduced her to tears, which she took to another friend, who asked her, "What are you really trying to give your children?" which produced even more tears. Her friend made L promise to put the knitting away until after the holidays.

But for those of us who force our knitted projects upon our loved ones, it is a very good question: What are we really trying to give them? And then there is the question of whether we give them what they want or what we think they should have. Or, in my case, what I just happened to have knit.

Sometimes I am knitting something I simply want to knit, because of the pattern, the yarn, the techniques, etc. If it is something I don't want/need for myself, should I try to force it onto someone else? Like the lime green baby hoodie I gave my hairdresser? (I still think she was pretending to like it. I haven't had the nerve to ask her if she ever actually used it.)

And then there is the surprise factor. I am learning to let go of expecting the recipients of my knitterly goods to be thrilled and to feel blessed with my largesse. At most, I hope they will use the item, and if not, will pass it on to someone who will appreciate it.

Sometimes things turn out better than expected, though. My son expressed an interest in having a pair of slipper socks, but he was not available to participate in the selection of pattern or yarn. I wasn't sure how he would like the ones I made, but he does like them, made good use of them this past bitter winter. I also knit him a scarf, hat, and fingerless gloves; those he has not mentioned.

When I signed up for a basic sock class, I decided the first pair would go to my daughter. She did not seem too excited about the prospect of handknit socks, until she tried on an unfinished one and it fit her foot very nicely. The same thing with a second pair that went to my SO; he raves about the fit. (Their blatant surprise over the fit grates a bit!)

But usually I bring home book after book from the library and force my loved ones to look through them, and rarely do I detect much excitement. That is, until my daughter saw Glamour Knits. "I like this. And I really like this. Oh, and I love this!" Hence, the lacy top that is giving me fits (so to speak!)

None of this has stopped me from starting a pair of socks, for a mystery recipient. And if the intended recipient does not like them, well, they will fit somebody.

Easy Does It

After the angst of toe-up sock #1, I decided I wanted to knit something easy, something brainless, something I could start right now with yarn onhand because my LYS went out of business.

When said LYS had their going-out-of-business sale, I glommed onto some Cascade 220, so I grabbed a skein of black and rolled it into a center-pull ball (without the fiasco I went through before). Then I started a lacy shawl from a pattern in the 2007 Knitting Pattern-a-Day Calendar (the April 25 entry). This pattern calls for Fiesta Boucle, and I tried it once using Lion Boucle, but the two yarns are obviously not interchangable and I didn't have enough yarn and I quickly abandoned this project. But, really, a lacy shawl can be knit from about any type yarn; you just get different results.

To make a long story short, I tried the Cascade 220 with different size needles until I found a result I liked, but the more I knit, the less I liked the result. The photo in the pattern made the shawl look rectangular, but for some reason mine was coming out at a diagonal.



And one edge looked like this...



... while the other edge looked twice as thick.



I really like things to look symmetrical, so this shawl bugged me enough that I ripped it and tried to figure out some way to get the results I wanted. My knitting stitch skills are not up to creating my own lacy shawl pattern, though. So I switched to a one-skein shawl pattern I found here. Again it took me a while to decide on needle size, and I decided that it was okay by me if I wound up with a sweater-shawl hybrid.



So this shawl will consist primarily of stockinette with lacy borders. Since this is meant to be my "menopause shawl" - something I can take off and put on with ease as I cycle through hot flashes - I think it will do just fine.

That Damn Sock!

I finally finished toe-up sock #1 and bound off, but - huh - the sock would not go over my heel. A little research revealed that you can't bind off a toe-up sock in the usual way, but must use a more stretchy method. (Too bad the book did not mention this. Many sock knitters rave about Sensational Knitted Socks, and it does have a lot of good info in it, but frankly, I would not recommend it to a beginner.)

I found some directions for a sewn cast-off here, and redid the bind off.



The top of the cuff looks frilly but it's not when on the foot.



The fit is a little tighter than I wanted and the cuff a little shorter than I expected, but it's okay...



... until I take a closer look at the short row heel from hell and discover a hole. A hole caused by a dropped stitch. Argh!!!

So I am taking a little hiatus from sock knitting while I decide just what I want to do about this damn sock.

The Saga Continues

All I wanted was a new air conditioner and a new furnace with a humidifier. And I did get a new air conditioner and a new furnace with a humidifier. But the story just won't end.

As reported earlier, there was a mishap. The result of the mishap was a broken attic ladder. The contractors said they would replace it. And they did. But, silly me, I assumed I would end up with something close to what I had before.

What I had before was nothing special, just one of those folding attic ladders you find in some houses. There was a string on a trapdoor that you pulled to reveal the ladder. The ladder was easy to reach and unfold, easy to refold, and with a little push, the door holding the ladder and covering the hole to the attic would return to its rightful place with a nice, neat fit.

Now I have this lovely example of drywalling:



And here I am, standing on tippy toe, trying to get the ladder down:



And here I am, trying to get the ladder up, but - huh - it doesn't quite fit without some near impossible gymnastics:



And this is how the door fits in the hole:



You are probably wondering how I let this happened. I did peek out in the garage a time or two, enough to gather that things weren't going well. But I'm a trusting soul. I believed everything would be okay in the end. But apparently the end occurred at 4:55pm, when the worker bees took off like it was quittin' time.

And that's not all. Because the room with the gas furnace and gas hot water heater is actually a large closet off my bedroom, the building inspector told the contractor I would need a new door, one that would seal off any smoke were there a fire, one with a "closer". A closer is something that automatically closes the door so you can't accidently bypass the smoke seals. But guess what? My door does not close unless I push it and bang it shut a few times, and it won't latch without some fiddling with the door knob.

And that's not all. The contractor's scheduler called to set a follow-up appointment, to check on the air conditioner and furnace. Since nothing had been said about this before, I was a little perplexed. And suspicious. You read about contractors concealing cameras behind vents so they can record people doing private things. Or maybe one of the installers was fired for cause and now they were checking up on his handiwork.

So I had a few things to discuss with the sales guy after the fact. And I did my best to state my case in a reasonable and sane manner. Afterwards, though, I did get a bit hysterical over the whole thing, venting to friends and family. Today I am calm, though. And I still have a new air conditioner and a new furnace with a humidifier.

But they have my money.

But I have butterflies.

Short n Sweet

Last Saturday I was going shopping in Indy with my daughter and needed something easy to knit in the car. This meant not the lacy top, not a sock ready for heel-turning, not an afghan. This meant something new, but not another baby hoodie because I haven't finished the last one, not the yoga mat bag because that is a lace project and I refuse to have two lace projects going on at the same time, ditto for socks, not the baby blankets that require wrangling four skeins of yarn at the same time, not a dishcloth because I am tired of cotton, not a hat because I just finished one. So, what did that leave me?



How about a little eyeglass case for my sweetie? He made this request an embarrassingly long tme ago, expressing an interest in the "Serendipity" SWTC bamboo I've been playing with, the OLD bamboo that produces a fabric with the texture of loofah. (My understanding is they have redesigned this yarn to be softer.) I cast 48 stitches onto US2 double points and basically made a little sock top, with 4 rounds of 2x2 ribbing to keep it from rolling and the next 6 inches plain old stockinette, closing with kitchenette. He has bamboo growing in his backyard (yes, Virginia, bamboo does grow in Indiana, and can be purchased here), and now he will have bamboo in his pocket.



Bamboo eyeglass cases. Can bamboo pocket protectors be far behind?

So Far, So Good

The AC and furnace are installed, all the gas appliances are working, and the new system provides not only a new level of climatic comfort in my home, but a much more quiet atmosphere. It's a little eerie, in fact, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. All this was not accomplished without at least one more mishap: a step on the ladder to the attic broke while one of the worker bees was climbing it. I heard a crash and shouting, and ran into the garage to find the poor man hanging practically upside down from what remained of the ladder. Fortunately, he was not hurt, just shaken up.

Meanwhile, I picked up a copy of Family Knits, by Debbie Bliss, from the library. Debbie Bliss is a familiar name in the knitting community, but I hadn't seen her patterns up close and personal. As is usual everywhere, the garments for the rugrats are the cutest, and several are generously sized so the wee ones can wear them for more than four weeks before outgrowing them. But there is one item for grownups, the patchwork aran jacket, that will defy boredom in even the most jaded knitter. The photography throughout the book is lovely, and there is even a picture index in the back, so you can find a given pattern easily.



Which brings me to the question of just how often patterns in books are actually knitted by the knitting lay public? I have knit many things from the Stitch and Bitch series, but I pick up most patterns for free online. The only current exceptions are projects from Glamour Knits, by Erica Knight, and Sensational Knitted Socks, by Charlene Schurch. Oh, and some from Mason-Dixon Knitting.



And in the Knitty Coffeeshop, there appears to be support groups for No Sheep for You, Big Girl Knits, and Knit Wit. I guess that answers my rhetorical question.



*sigh* So many projects, so little time.

It's a Conspiracy

Wednesday night I did not sleep well, anticipating two days of burly men with tools making big changes to my house. Thinking thoughts like, They said they would be here at 7:30 but last night was fireworks night so they might be late how late can they be before I call and complain what if there was a miscommunication and they aren't coming at all and I've wasted two vacation days what if they need to use the bathroom I'd better clean them wish I had fixed the toilet that runs it's too easy to just turn off the water when you live alone and have two bathrooms they will probably need to get into the attic and under the house but the accesses to both are in the garage and the garage is so full of crap I'll need to clear some stuff out of their way at least I took a shower tonight but what if I'm on the john when they arrive I hate making big changes to the house it feels like I am compromising the basic integrity of the structure and it is going to cost so much but I've been saving my bonus just for this and I was without heat a couple of times last winter and the AC unit is 35 years old but what if I lose my job and need that money to keep from eating cat food and becoming homeless....

Etc. etc. and so forth....

(Three in the morning is the perfect time to "musterbate" and "awfulize" every cotton pickin' little thing. A co-worker says one of my super powers is the ability to worry about anything and everything. I've been working on this - better living through hypnotism - but sometimes the mind demands free rein.)

After sleepwalking through Thursday, I decided I needed a little pharmaceutical help to sleep that night, so I took one Excedrin PM. (I've learned that two is one too many.) And with no AC, I opened the windows and turned the ceiling fan on high to stir the air. Sleeping conditions were actually quite pleasant... until 2:00am when I was awakened by the doorbell and someone shouting outside.

First thought: Must be a prank. This is a very quiet, staid neighborhood for the most part and middle-of-the-night disturbances are rare. Second thought: Maybe the house is on fire. This has happened to me before, someone ringing my doorbell to tell me my house was burning. So I get up, then realize my sleeping attire is not what one should answer the door while wearing. Find robe, then creep up to the front door and peek out the window to see just what is going on. (Note to self: Keep a baseball bat by front door for future middle-of-the-night visitors.)

By now, the visitor was across the street, banging on their door and yelling, so I (perhaps foolishly) opened my door and stepped out on the porch and started yelling, too. What's going on? The twenty-something guy, wearing nothing but shorts and tattoos and carrying a backpack, came running back, asking me to call the police because his "significant other" had attacked him. He held out his hands to show me, but since he was still in the yard and it was dark, I couldn't see anything unusual (like blood). Then he starts running back down the street. Wait, what's your address? Why don't you stay here? He gave me a house number (of which he was uncertain) and took off.

I closed the door (and locked it!) and got the phone and then debated. If this were a prank, I doubt he would have been running from house to house, shouting for help. He didn't seem drunk or high. If the address was the house I was thinking of, several young people had been having a good time there this past week but nothing over-the-top. So I dialed 911, but then disconnected, still not sure about the whole thing because it just didn't feel right. (Later, I surmised it might not have felt right because it didn't happen the way it would have been portrayed in the movies or on tv. Not enough angst or something.)

If you call 911 and hang up, they call you back. I explained the whole thing to the dispatcher, and she said they would send someone around to see what was what. Still clutching the phone, I then parked myself by the bedroom window, to see what I could see, which wasn't much. Some (police?) cars (and an ambulance?) drove down the next street over, but I couldn't see where they were going. Then a cruiser came down my street and stopped in front of my house. I went back outside and the (very short) officer (don't they have a height requirement at the police department?) said they found the guy and did I have anything to add to what I had told the dispatcher? I tried to get some details from him but nada.

Of course, getting back to sleep after all that was next to impossible. And since the worker bees were going to do the attic work in the morning, they wanted to start even earlier. So Friday I was not much perkier than Thursday. But I did manage to do some ironing (a huge rarity but actually a pleasant chore since I chose to do it in the Florida room which was cool and clean for a change) and I applied several Minwax products to the andirondack chairs I had bought (cheap!) from Joann earlier this season. ("Natural" stain is a synonym for "nearly invisible" stain, but it did make a difference.) And I watched "The Pursuit of Happyness."



As to more knitterly topics, I finished the "no hair day" chemo hat, but it seems more like a candidate for What Not to Knit. For one thing, I chose to make a size large but did not swatch (the it-will-fit-somebody philosophy) and it really is large. I envisioned a salt-and-pepper result but it turned out quite stripey (which is why Fun Fur calls the colorway "Stripes" you dope!) When I modeled it for my daughter, she said it looks like a shower cap, and my SO likened it to a wig from SNL.



But today, while trying to photograph it in all its hideous glory, I realized that it doesn't look so bad when it is not pulled down as far as possible, so if someone (with a very large head) wears it more wiglike, i.e. so the bottom edge lines up with where one's hairline would be (if one had hair), it doesn't look too bad.



Or does it? Your honest opinion please!

All About Color

It's been a good news-bad news kind of day.

I am taking today and tomorrow as vacation days, because I am having a new furnace and AC installed (yay!) but the AC was lacking freon, so tonight I have no air (boo!)

The latest incarnation of the toe-up sock looks right (yay!) but, with no AC, my hands get too sweaty to knit (boo!)



I watched "Billy Elliot" this afternoon (yay!) because I didn't sleep well last night and was too tired to do anything else (boo!)

The flowers in my yard are gorgeous (yay!) but it still has not rained so I spend a lot of time watering (boo!)



But something I have noticed about both knitting and gardening, frequently it is all about color.

Taking a Break from Socks

Well, that boxy toe from my previous post did not work. Once I had knit enough to try it on, there was obviously going to be 'way too much sock for my toes. So I just stopped.

Instead, I have been working on a "no hair day" chemo hat (pattern here). Last winter, during a manic phase, I bought up a bunch of Fun Fur that was on sale (10 for $10!!!) with no idea of what to do with it. It has come in handy for this project. I'm using up the Stripes: Night Sky skeins first, thinking the result would be a nice mixture of black, gray, and white, sort of like my own hair. But the yarn is definitely striping. Eyelash yarn is not exactly my favorite - no give, difficult to see what you're doing, 100% polyester - but I hope the recipient has fun with it. I'm planning to send it to Kaps for Kendall.

I have also been working on my daughter's lacy top from Glamour Knits. I have started this pattern multiple times, managing to screw up royally over and over again. I finally got smart and started adding life lines every 6 rows, and of course, have not screwed up once since then. I also have learned to knit a couple of rows, then take a break, because if I knit too long at one time, I am about 1000% more likely to make a mistake.

Trying Toe-Up

Or should I say toe-up is very trying? These are the anklets I promised myself in a previous posting. Since the TOFUtsies yarn is not-quite-half-used-up, toe-up (and my trusty scale) seemed the solution to knowing when to stop sock #1 and start sock #2. But I had an awful time getting started.

My original plan was to follow the Ann Norling basic sock pattern but knit up instead of down. Sounds easy. But how to begin? After struggling with several methods from several sources, I settled on one of the many so-called "easy toe" directions, this one from Sensational Knitted Socks. But, for some reason, I couldn't get the provisional cast on to unzip. Several more sources later, I came across a provisional cast on from another set of "easy toe" directions, in this knitty article, where one crochets a chain, then knits into the backs of the stitches. Success!

Now I had my little rectangle of knitting to turn into a sock toe. Still under the delusion I could follow the basic sock pattern, I had cast on 20 stitches, which meant I had 40 stitches on two needles, which turned into 48 stitches by the time I added a third needle and had picked up stitches on the sides of the rectangle. Since the basic sock pattern starts with 64 stitches, I added 4 stitches every other round until I reached 64.



Hmmm. This toe looks really boxy. Oh, well, I said to myself, maybe this is one of the differences between toe-up and cuff-down socks. But before I continued, I took a gander at the heel instructions in SKS. The toe-up sock directions are combined with 5-stitch pattern directions, so the expectation is one will have the number of stitches on the needles suitable for 5-stitch patterns. I am knitting plain stockinette; did I want to recalculate the values in the heel instructions to work with my 64 stitches? Definitely not. So I increased my stitch count to 70.

(An aside: I hate M1, aka "make 1". For some reason, I find it incredibly awkward to execute and I end up kind of twirling the needles around each other, seeking a purchase for completing the stitch. And usually I leave a little hole behind, but these M1's look pretty good. But I still hate doing them.)

(Another aside: While discussing pet peeves, I will mention that I am becoming more and more disenchanted with bamboo needles. Instead of growing smoother with time, they seem to be getting brittle and splintery. The obvious solution is to sand the roughness away, but eventually that will change their size, won't it? And the yarn doesn't move smoothly over the needle surface. These needles may be passed on to another knitter who can appreciate their quirks more than I can.)



So, now I'm merrily knitting around the foot of the sock, but that boxy toe bothers me. Looking at the SKS instructions, I now see that I should have cast on 14 stitches, not 20. Maybe I should have just started with the SKS pattern to begin with. But am I going to start over? I don't think so. I wear Earth shoes, which have square toe boxes, so I'm thinking I will just stick with what I have. It will add another variable to the experiment that is called knitting.

I Knit and Knit and Knit Some More

At the last Women's Weekend, almost everyone was knitting, but at this one I knit alone. Maybe it was the 90 degree heat that put off the others, and I have to admit that it is difficult to knit once one's hands get sweaty, but by then I was almost done, so I had to finish. More details here.



These socks were meant to be anklets, but they are actually somewhere between an anklet and a footie. I plan to make myself a pair, on needle size US2, and think I might increase the top by an inch or so.

I don't think I ever expanded my New Year's Resolution (to do something fun each month) beyond May, so here is an update:

June: Another Women's Weekend. See January for details on what this is about.

July: Having fun this month may be unachievable because my department at work will be training our replacements. We won't necessarily lose our jobs; rather, we are being freed to find positions elsewhere, either within the company or without.

August: This one is easy because my daughter is getting married!

September: Tentatively scheduling a vacation for this month.

October: The fall Women's Weekend.

November: ??? (Thanksgiving doesn't count.)

December: ??? (Christmas really doesn't count.)

Not My Fault

Ok. I checked the notes that I jotted down two months ago that said we would meet in June but not July or August. Last week while I was at the library, I asked whether the knitting group would meet, and they said yes. I worked up some blanket squares, leaving one in an almost-done state, so I would have something to work on. I packed up the preemie caps. I rearranged my schedule to accommodate the meeting. I even took a shower and arrived on time. But no "One Stitch at a Time" meeting.

This always happens to me. When I first moved to The Fort, I tried to make new friends by enrolling in classes, attending meetings, going to events, and 9 times out of 10, the class/meeting/event would be cancelled. Or, if it weren't cancelled, I'd be the youngest person there, the next youngest being around 70, or (as in the case with a writers conference I attended last month) the only person there (at least the instructor showed up). Something in The Universe wants to keep me out of group situations, for either my protection or theirs.

But this time I thought it was safe. The group seemed large enough and stable enough to withstand my bad group karma, and knitters are a sturdy bunch. But I guess it was just not meant to be.

Think I will go play with my bunny.

Every Project Is an Experiment

Same pattern + different yarn + different size needles = unknown.

That's the basic equation for these socks. Using the Ann Norling pattern from the basic sock class, I dropped a needle size for a better fit (pattern recommended US3, instructor told us to use US2, and now I am trying US1), but the SWTC TOFUtsies yarn is less stretchy than the Online yarn I used before, so I wasn't sure how these would turn out. I thought the entire sock was going to be too small, but my daughter declared the fit to be just about perfect (except for the ribbing, which seems a bit loose, but she claims it doesn't matter because these are anklets). So it's on to anklet #2.



A big advantage to knitting anklets is it takes about half the time as regular socks. This first sock weighed only 20 g., so I'm hoping to get two pairs from one skein, another advantage to anklets. The second pair will be for me (Ha! I've said that before), and I plan to do the ribbing on size US1 but the rest on US2, to see how that works out. Another experiment!

Last Chance Before Summer Break

Last month I forgot to attend the "One Stitch at a Time" meeting. I have a list of excuses - just back from a writer's workshop, taking a week off to work in my yard, expecting my son to visit, etc. - but really, I just plain forgot. But I don't want to forget this month, because we are not meeting in July and August and I want to turn in what I have managed to get done.

I'm not very good on group projects and have suffered a lot of angst over the blanket squares, but here are four finished preemie caps.



Three are in the smallest size and one in the next-to-smallest size for the pattern, which is free from Lion Brand. BTW, I used Crystal Palace bamboo needles designated as US3 but in reality are more like US3.5 (if there is such a thing). The i-cord loop on top is my addition.

Mitered Out

I finished something! More dishcloths! I may have trouble seaming garter stitch, turning hells heels, and knitting lace, but by God, I can mattress stitch stockinette! Well, more or less. I stitched these up and wove in the ends over my lunch hour at work. Not a perfect job, but perfectly good enough for dishcloths.



These were based on the Mitered Square Blanket pattern in Mason-Dixon Knitting. I used Lion Brand Lion Cotton. The variegated yarn is "Wedgwood", the blue is "Periwinkle", and the white is "White". Originally, I planned to make one dishcloth, combining the Wedgwood and Periwinkle squares, but that didn't look so hot. So then I decided to make White squares for the Wedgwood, which meant I now had 1.5 dishcloths. Naturally, I had to make two more squares for the Periwinkle, so I striped the Periwinkle and White.



These are for my daughter, so everytime she washes dishes, she will think of me.

Bad Knitting Mojo

With the recent drop in temperatures, I decided to wear my new sucks socks with Birkenstocks, and I discovered that, not only do the socks look huge, they are huge. Even after a trip through the washer and dryer, by the end of the day, they were scrunched down around my ankles. I'm half tempted to frog them, but I hate to mangle the yarn any more than I already have. Maybe they will fit my son's size 13 feet. Or maybe I will develop edema. If neither of those ideas work, the yarn may become a shawl.

And then there is the lacy top. My plan to thread a lifeline every 12 rows was defeated by a major snafu in - you guessed it - row 12. I set it aside to marinate, but I think I will have to frog. I keep putting it off.

And then there is the mango baby hoodie whose construction has not progressed beyond that first sleeve, which I did over, and it does look better, but I'm not quite satisfied.

And then there are the patches I've been knitting for a charity blanket, the patches I can't knit to gauge, no matter how small the needles, the patches from yarn that is not from the same dye lot. The group is meeting next week. At least I have a few preemie caps to contribute.

And then today I read several blogs, the writers of which all seemed to be at BEA. It was like reading about a party I was not invited to, a party I would very much like to be invited to. Who am I kidding? I am dying to be invited to that kind of party! The only catch is you have to actually write a book and be getting it published to be invited. Two giant hurdles. Even though last week my fortune cookie fortune said, "You will become an accomplished writer," I can barely keep this blog up-to-date.

On the plus side, I started another pair of socks (why do I persist?!?), anklets out of SWTC TOFUtsies. I originally intended to use their bamboo yarn and knitted up a swatch, but it was the previous incarnation of bamboo yarn (it has since been redesigned) and it seems more conducive to exfoliating washcloths than socks. But I tell ya, anklets are definitely the way to go: 16 rows of ribbing, 16 rows of stockinette, and you're already into the heel.