Who needs Rhinebeck?

I have yet to make it to the mecca of all things wooly, the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival that comes to Rhinebeck each October. Through various bloggers, I visit vicariously, so I know what I am missing. Some day I will make that journey.

Meanwhile, that doesn't mean I can't buy me some yarn now and then.

From Simply Socks Yarn Co, some of their own Poste yarn, destined to become socks for xmas giving:

From Hancock Fabrics, lots of this Fisherman's Wool (it was on sale!), that will become a poncho (which are back in style!), most likely this one, although I have been recently distracted by this pattern:

From The Fifth Stitch, Defiance, OH, comes some Cascade Heritage Prints sock yarn, that will be for moi:

And that is my reward for finishing the black lacy socks.

Black socks are done

The almost-most-boring-socks-in-the-world are done. The only thing that might have made them more tedious was to knit them in plain stockinette. I didn't want to use a pattern that was too fancy - these eyes are old - so this one fit the bill.

Can't see the lacework, can you?

• Pattern: Dead Simple Lace Socks, by Wendy D. Johnson (in Socks from the Toe Up)
• Yarn: Lang Yarns Jawoll Superwash Solids, colorway 8304 (black)
• Needles: US2
• Modifications: Used Turkish cast on - 16 stitches total - then increased *every* round (to make toe more rounded) until up to 32 stitches , then started alternating a knit round with an increase round, up to 64 stitches. Used Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy bind off.

Now can you see the lacework?

Side note: I hate-hate-HATE it when toe-up sock patterns end with "bind off loosely". Using a standard bind off, I have never been able to bind off loose enough for socks. For a while, I used EZ's sewn bind off, which worked well, but now I am a devoted fan of Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy bind off. Well done, Jeny, well done.

Now. NOW. I get to knit some colorful socks.

The Fifth Stitch

My SO and I took a ramble toward Clyde, OH, and on the way, stopped in Defiance where we enjoyed made-from-scratch cheesecake at A Little Slice of Heaven, cafe au lait from Cabin Fever Coffee, and YARN, lots and lots of yarn, at The Fifth Stitch.

Over the years, I have discovered that one can tell the health of a yarn shop by its inventory, and The Fifth Stitch is very, very healthy. I wish I had taken some photos (too busy yapping with the owner, who has been in business for over 40 years) because the walls and shelves were simply full. If memory serves me correctly (a bit IF these days), most of the yarn is grouped by color instead of weight or brand, a concept I think I have not seen elsewhere. The main exceptions to this were the sock yarns and baby yarns. There were also plenty of samples, and in the back of the store, many samples from the past, including complete sweaters.

Alas, the building has been sold and the owner is contemplating retirement in the next year or two. What will become of the shop then is unknown at this point. However, if you follow the store on Facebook, you may get lucky if/when there is a moving/retirement sale.

I dream of color

I have been working on a pair of black socks. Not variegated, not sparkly, just plain black. And are they ever BORING, not even worth photographing. To maintain my sanity motivation, I am promising myself a trip to Simply Socks Yarn Co in the near future, to pick out bright and colorful yarn for xmas socks.

What do you do to stick with a particularly tedious stretch of knitting?

Blue, I'm blue

I've attended several dye workshops, all geared toward yarn and roving, but ever since reading about shibori on Mason-Dixon Knitting, I've been yearning for a class on resistant dyeing. Yesterday, my wish was answered. Fort Wayne Parks sponsored just such a workshop, at the Botanical Gardens. Yee-ha!

The instructor, Lorelei VerLee, was the offspring of missionaries and spent most of her childhood in Japan, where her fascination with intricate fabric design began. She is now the Executive Director of Creative Women of the World (whose store front I must visit for xmas shopping). Both she and her assistant wore skirts of shibori.

Lorelei made a point of using equipment and ingredients that we could easily procure, including an indigo dye kit she purchased from Dharma Trading Co. To provide the resist in resistant dyeing, one can use just about anything, from ceramic tiles to cardboard tubes, from rubber bands to binder clips, from marbles to chickpeas. We each received a length of cotton to experiment with and a hemp scarf for a "final project".

For my experimentation, I tried several methods: folding the cotton like an accordion, first in one direction, then another, then sandwiching the cloth between ceramic tiles held in place with rubber bands; wrapping cloth around marbles and chickpeas, holding the objects in place with rubber bands; gathering the cloth like shirring, using needle and thread (this technique was a fail for me - too loosely done); wrapping rubber bands successively around the cloth to form a little tower; and folding the cloth like a flag and clamping with binder clips. (For the record, this step and the step of removing all the resistant materials can be quite tedious.)

Next came the fun part: after wetting the cloth, it was dipped in indigo for a while (a few minutes?), then the magic happened.

(It was during the post-dye bath rinsing where my hands turned blue-ish - it would have been nice if we each had a pair of latex gloves for this step. Most of the dye washed off when I did dishes that night, though.)

For my scarf, I wrapped the cloth around a cardboard mailing tube and secured it with rubber bands. I am not very happy with the results - too much white - so I may take it to the store and re-dye it, as Lorelei will have the vats available for a couple of weeks.

All this was accomplished in about two hours, which was just barely enough time. I didn't get a chance to chat up any of the other participants, although (from eavesdropping) I learned there were at least one or two knitters, some master gardeners, and who knows who else.

I always come away from these workshops with grand(iose) ideas of future projects. One that might actually happen is making a shibori sampler using 12" squares, sewing them together in a patchwork, then quilting the result to use as a curtain in my bedroom. I am also curious about using other dyes, like henna.

So many ideas, so little time.

WIP vs UFO

What exactly constitutes a work-in-progress (WIP) vs. an unfinished object (UFO)? Does a certain amount of non-productive knitting time need to pass to transfer a particular project from WIP to UFO? Or maybe it is location, WIPs floating to the top while UFOs sink to the bottom of the knitting basket? If something gets transferred from knitting basket to closet, then it definitely becomes a UFO, but what about all those good intentions that remain? Maybe if the knitter gets a grip on startitis, those quasi-UFOs can bubble up and return to the realm of WIPs.

The Easy as Pie blanket is a case in point. What usually happens to stall a project is a snag of some sort, and in this case, I could not reconcile the instructions to pick up 49 stitches along the edge of a square with the fact I could come up with only 48. That, and the onset of summer when knitting wool feels just plain wrong, relegated this project to the bottom of the knitting basket. Now that autumn is trying to ease summer out of the way, the blanket squares have emerged. Some commentary on Ravelry verified that there really are only 48 stitches to be picked up, so I feel vindicated on that point, but now I seem to be short a square. Did I lose one or what?

Fortunately, between my notes on Ravelry and this blog, I was able to ascertain that an earlier snafu left me with the choice of either making a 3x5 blanket or knitting another square to create a 4x4 one. My circles are not divided between two motifs as the pattern dictates but spread out over seven, so I have two squares of most motifs and three of two of them - except for the missing square, of which I have only one. No one else would probably notice, but my knowing that one motif would be represented only once in the blanket is something I can't live with. So now I need to make another square, but it has been so long since I knitted that part of the pattern that I am feeling a little stuck, AGAIN.

Meanwhile, the bathroom curtain is almost done, STILL. All I need to do is bind off while picking up stitches along the way, to create the sleeve for a curtain rod. That is ALL. What holds me back is the need to baste that row of stitches to be picked up, to make sure I stay on course while binding off. Why is that so difficult for me to do?

Sometimes I think my issue with finishing a project is that the end marks the Day of Judgment. Will this knitted object turn out how I envisioned? Will it fit? Will the recipient (even if it is me) like it? Will it look homemade vs. handmade? Will others mock? Will its flaws scream at me every time I look at it?

Despite all the socks I have knit, even they can be daunting to finish, but since they are usually meant as xmas gifts, they get done, the results be damned. I haven't knit many pairs this year, but they are the epitome of portability when it comes to knitting. I might not actually work on them while dragging them hither and yon, but I like the idea of having something at hand in case the need arrives.

What about you? What's your excuse for all those UFOs? I know you have some.

Turntable is DONE

August 12 was National Vinyl Record Day, and I tried to finish the Turntable shawl then. It was not to be, though - the knitting was completed August 13, then it sat for a few weeks before I finally gave it a quick bath and gently blocked it.

Since this is knit from alpaca, I didn't block it all the way to the dimensions in the pattern, as alpaca has a tendency to stretch. Still, I was within a few inches.

Pattern: Turntable, by Hilary Smith Callis
Yarn: Alpaca in undyed dark brown (suri/huacaya alpaca blend from Raval and Tess) and natural beige (suri alpaca from Zathura), from Turtle Creek Alpacas
Needles: US6 (bound off using US8)
Modifications: none

This is one of the easiest shawls to knit, as it is garter stitch all the way. The only tricky part is the increase rows, and they are tricky only because of the mindfulness required to execute the increases instead of knitting merrily along. But even if you mess the increases up a bit, the pattern is very forgiving.

One problem I have had with shawls is when out and about, as the shawl rarely works under or with any of my coats. This soft beauty, however, can serve as a scarf in transit, then shift to shawl duty once the coat is ditched, the perfect solution to chilly restaurants in winter. I anticipate getting a lot of use from this baby.

Some progress

Everyday, I knit a bit on each of these projects.

The curtain gets a minimum of two rows per day, 200 stitches per row. I estimate I am about halfway done, plus 10% for shrinkage, plus curtain rod sleeve.

When I started the shawl, I knit ten rows a day. Now that there are 295 stitches on the needles, it too gets knit at least two rows a day. (The next row is an increase row, then it will be 319 stitches.)

The curtain requires a lot of counting, not so much the shawl, except for the increase rows. Some days I am tempted to work on something short and sweet, but we all know where that path leads - more UFOs.

The trouble with denim

Denim is one of those yarns where I like the destination more than the journey, because it is so inelastic. Unfortunately, it also shrinks lengthwise, so one needs to knit about 10% more than the measuring tape indicates. And since, I am knitting a curtain, there will also need to be a bit extra for the sleeve for the rod.

This is going to be one heavy curtain. Linen (another inelastic yarn) would probably have been a better choice, but denim is what I had, so denim is what I knit.

The trouble with shawls

Most shawl patterns start with about 3 stitches. Initial progress seems rapid, despite the increase rows. But once there are over 200 stitches on the needles, things bog down a bit.

The photo above was taken around row 98, 223 stitches. I'm now on row 112, 247 stitches. The finished shawl will be 176 rows, 391 stitches. Gah.

Pompomless

I had every intention of making pompoms for my golf club covers. In fact, I did make some. My g'daughter glommed onto the first one, the second one turned out okay, the third one fell apart when I tried to tie it off. Then I decided I was not a pompom kind of girl.

Pattern: Basic Golf Club Head Cover, by Sheila Toy Stromberg
Yarn: Purl Essence Sincerely Baby, colorways 'Sincerely Pink' and 'Sincerely Gray'
Needles: US8
Modifications: fancied them up with Fair Isle interspersed with solid stripes to indicate the club number (no striping on the putter cover)

Since I play on a par-3 course, I don't have much call to use more than one driver. And I find fiddling with the covers to be a PITA. However, the covers are cute and add a bit of panache to my tired old clubs.

KIPing, WIPs, and a new tool

Ordinarily, I am not shy about knitting in public. In fact, I find it the perfect activity when stuck somewhere, waiting, waiting, waiting. The other day, the waiting occurred in the car dealer's lounge, while my Honda CRV had its allegedly defective air bag replaced. Yet, I was hoping no one would start up a conversation with, "So. What are you making?" When others ask that, they expect to hear something like "sweater" or "baby blanket" or "afghan". But I was working on a curtain for my master bath. To another knitter, it makes perfect sense to knit a curtain or a towel or a golf club cover, but others immediately want to know WHY IN THE WORLD you would knit something so easily purchased?!?

I have to admit that, while working on this particular item, the same question sometimes occurs to me. It's a lot of knitting that is not all that interesting, in a yarn I don't particular like working with. The wrong side rows are all purl, another aspect I don't like. BUT. I am convinced that I will like the result. So I force encourage myself to knit a bit on it every day.

The denim curtain is an indication that my knitting mojo is returning. Starting a shawl is another sign. I'm not much of a shawl wearer. However, on our trip to NYC, when in an environment that felt a little chilly but not cold enough for a sweater, I was wishing I had a light shawl, like several of the women I saw who were smarter than me about AC in airports. There even was a pattern in my Ravelry queue, one that also designated which yarn from my stash to use. Kismet.

Like most shawls, it doesn't look like much at the outset. Knit from (splitty) alpaca, it may also be too warm for summer use. Knitting ten rows of garter at a sitting is a snap right now,but I'm sure it will devolve into drudgery when those rows are hundreds of stitches long. However, I am again convinced that I will like the results.

The above project required a trip to Simply Socks to purchase some new circs. (Although basically an online venue, their brick-and-mortar store is open one day a week.) While there, I also bought this sock ruler.

I don't know why someone has not thought of this handy little tool before. Or, more honestly, I wish I had thought of this. As far as I know, Simply Socks is its only vendor.

How's your summer knitting going?

My new addiction

No, not a new fiber addiction, but a new-found love of GOLF. I took some lessons this spring on a whim, and have been out on a 3-par course a couple of times since. My clubs are some old cast-offs from a friend. None have covers, so I decided to knit my own.

The set has three woods and a putter of unknown origin. Each cover for the woods will have stripes in the Fair Isle to correspond to the club number, e.g., 1, 3, 5. The colors will be reversed for the putter. Oh, and they all get pompoms. This is a fun and easy, one size fits all, who cares about gauge project.

What to do with those leftovers from the 1970's

My SO and I recently spent a few days in NYC, running ourselves ragged in an effort to experience as much as we could in three days. My first night home, I slept the sleep of the dead, that's how exhausted I felt. But it was fun!

Among the places we visited was the new Whitney. The current exhibit is "America Is Hard to See", showcasing American artists. My favorite pieces were the two below.

Despite what the placard that accompanied these pieces says (see last photo), I view this one as a history of my early crafting experience: the obligatory granny square afghan, the yarn octopus, homemade dolls, macrame, etc. If I had kept all that crap, I could create my own version of this work of art.

Anyone who came of age in the late '60s/early '70s might have a collection of candles such as this one. Again, it reflects what could be in my closet if I had not long ago tossed it all. Quite the shrine to the Counter Culture.

Just for grins and giggles, here is what the placard for these pieces says. A bit more lofty than my interpretation. What do you think?

These works led to a discussion of what kind of art I could create with all the old computer equipment that I have yet to dispose of. Possible titles: A Pyramid of Technology, Digital Detritus, My So-Called Career. Then I could donate it to a museum.

Almost famous

The Little Shop of Spinning, where I purchased my wheel, was recently featured in Spinning Daily, here. The caption on the bottom photo is incorrect - that group of people is not from the Fort Wayne Flax and Fleecers Dye Day, it's from a one-day workshop I attended last winter. Guess which person in the photo is me.

I made something else

Still no knitting going on here, but I did work up another bit of weaving. This could be another coaster, or a doll blanket, or an area rug for a doll house. My g'daughter will probably abscond with it, and the tied off ends will probably unravel, as the instructions were rather vague about how best to finish things up.

The travel knitting may devolve from socks to golf club covers, which are rather sock-like. I may even knit them "toe" up, with a bit of Fair Isle. What say you?

I made something

My knitting mojo appears to be on summer vacation, even though it is only May. Meanwhile, I bought a toy loom and have been playing with that a bit.

This is a coaster, I guess, with fringe. I thought using the frame itself for the sides was a smart move, but while that kept the sides straight, it also meant more threads to tie off.

My SO and I will be traveling soon, and I'm contemplating what knitting to ignore take along. Even if there is no hotel knitting, there undoubtedly will be airport and airplane knitting. I'm thinking an easy pair of DK socks.

On hiatus

I haven't been knitting much, but Opal has. Enjoy! (I "borrowed" these from GoComics.com.

Time out

I took (another) tumble a couple of weeks ago. Injuries include a sprained wrist, so I rested it until the swelling went down. It is still wrapped in an Ace bandage, but I find I can knit again. And type.

Not that the knitting has been going that well. I'm still slogging along on the Easy as Pie blanket. All the circles are squared, but I decided to redo the first six, slipping stitches knitwise, as it makes for a smoother fabric. The first one I picked up to redo was missing a row on color one. No problem, I'll just pick up an extra stitch for that quadrant. Things were going smoothly, until I reached the final quadrant, and instead of having 30 stitches left, there were 39. Gah!

I tossed that one aside, and several days later, after I had recovered from that disappointment, I checked the remaining five. All the circles were as they should be. I am still going to resquare them, and then I'll decide whether to completely redo the screwed up circle or reduce the blanket from 4x4 to 3x5.

Thought process

Even though I am not knitting DK boot socks right now, I like to have a pair of socks on the needles at all times. At first, I picked out the pattern for Errant Socks (from Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines) for my next sock project, but I could not easily figure out how to modify it for my big feet. Then I decided I'd knit them for my daughter. Then I decided if I were knitting for her, I should use the yarn I purchased for making her work socks, which is black because she almost always wears black slacks at work. Then, while knitting the first toe, I realized that black yarn was not the best yarn for this pattern because of the cables; also, my eyes are old. So I switched to the Dead Simple Lace Socks pattern (from Socks from the Toe Up). But since I had already started the toe, I stayed with the more rounded one from the Errant Socks pattern. Does this make sense?

The sock yarn I am using for this is Lang Yarns Jawoll Superwash 4-ply fingering. While pulling the first yards from the skein, something seemed to be holding things up. I fished around inside of the skein, thinking there was a cardboard core or something in there, only to pull out a spool of black thread. WTH?

I think I have never seen this before and couldn't imagine why it was there. Turns out it is 2-ply yarn to use for reinforcing toes and heels. I hope this is not a bad omen for the yarn in general, nor the fact that this yarn has been discontinued.

FO - another pair of boot socks for me

Even though I am not officially "cold sheeping", I decided to stick to projects for which I have yarn. That means plowing through skein after skein of DK sock yarn. There is one more left, but I am saving that for travel knitting.

Pattern: none to speak of, just plain ordinary toe-up socks
Yarn: ONline Supersocke 6-Fach Milano, colorway 1618
Needles: US3

The weather has finally turned, so I don't anticipate wearing these until next winter. There is nothing like handknit wool socks to take the bite out of bitter cold.

Knitting on the hoof

There was some kind of knitting thing in Freimann Square a while back. The only trace that remains is a bit of finery for General "Mad" Anthony Wayne. The scarves seem fitting for the kind of winter we have had here.

Indigo-go

A week or so ago, I attended another workshop on natural dyeing, this one including indigo. I've been a little obsessed with the idea of dyeing with indigo ever since I read Kay Gardner's post on shibori, a.k.a. resistant dyeing. Not so obsessed to actually try it, but obsessed just the same. At this workshop, we worked only with yarn, but I learned how to dye with indigo, so when the itch must be scratched, I am ready (as soon as I accumulate the necessary equipment and ingredients).

In the previous fiber dyeing workshops I have attended, we mordanted the yarn before dyeing. In this one, we learned a one-pot method whereby the mordant was added to the dye pot. Either way, the yarn must be soaked beforehand. The instructor supplied one-ounce skeins, enough for each of us to have five. (That's a lot of niddy-noddying!)

The first dye batches we did were marigold and cochineal. The former produced a golden mustard color. The latter initially resulted in coral rather than red, probably due to the fact the cochineal was wrapped in cheesecloth; when simply added to the dye bath, it produced a rich red.

Then it was time for the indigo. We had two pots going, one for blank yarn, one for overdyeing some of the already dyed yarn. Indigo is fussy, but magical. The dye bath looks greenish yellow, as does the yarn when first pulled out. But contact with oxygen in the air quickly turns the yarn blue, right before your eyes. If you are not satisfied with the shade of blue, the yarn can go back in the pot repeatedly.

I chose to overdye the coral skein and one of the mustard ones, the latter producing a lovely green.

The instructor also tried dyeing with some turmeric root that is now available at the local food co-op. It produced a pale yellow that I like better than the mustard gold.

Here are the class rsults: indigo on the left, then marigold overdyed with indigo, then cochineal overdyed with indigo, then the two shades obtained from the cochineal, and in the back the marigold.

I had to skidaddle at the end of class for grandma duty. While driving the g'daughter to my house, I told her what I had been doing all morning. Of course, she wanted to dye some yarn, too. So I dug out some blank sock yarn and Kool-Aid, and we dyed our own. Being four, she did not quite get what we were doing, but I hope I am planting seeds for the future.

It will be okay

I've been marching along, working on the Easy as Pie blanket, squaring up the circles. Only four more to go! But I was beginning to worry that the squared circles would not lay flat when done. Then I got the bright idea to block one and see how it turned out.

Whew!

Picking up a UFO after such a long time is problematic. I could not remember if I had already switched to the Irish cottage knitting style when I started (I had but had not yet learned to upsize the needle to make up for tighter stitches). While seeing if the pattern specified how to M1 at the points, I realized the slipped stitches were supposed to be slipped knitwise; I'm not sure I did that, but I am now. I want to do my best, but some days my best is not very good. Since this is a blanket for my 4-year-old g'daughter, and it will remain here at my house, I'm not concerned about perfection. Next time I will do better (I hope).