(mis)adventures of spindlerose

11. Three Wonderful Wallabies

for three fabulous kids. Of course, I can't find a recent photo of the fabulous kids, so you'll have to settle for bad pictures of their birthday Wonderful Wallabies.

   

L to R: Light Rose and Sage for M, Hunter and Tan for B, Cherry and White for D. Click for big.

I knit all three from Dark Horse Fantasy—a reasonably priced acrylic and nylon blend. While my sister is capable of hand laundering kid sweaters, it seemed unfair to send handwash-only sweaters intended to be loved and worn as hooded sweatshirts by kids who love to play outside. M and B received theirs in March (hence the horrible iPhone photos from the days of broken camera) and wear them whenever possible. I mailed D's yesterday, so he should be wearing it this weekend.

Wallaby Trio
Pattern: Wonderful Wallaby from Cottage Creations.
Yarn: Dark Horse Fantasy in colors listed above.
Notions: 4.0 and 5.0 mm
Time: M: January 26 to February 13, 2008; B: February 15 to February 29, 2008; D: April 19 to May 25, 2008
Comments: I had fun knitting lots of love into these three sweaters. Toward the end, it did feel like something of a death march. I kept things interesting by mixing up the stripes and experimenting with cast on techniques. On the first two I did a tiny bit of intarsia in the round at the base of the placket to make the contrast.

After a winter and spring of knitting for others, I'm totally ready for a summer of selfish knitting. I'm planning to finish three half knit summer sweaters next month and to get my needles ready for the Summer of Socks.

7. How did it get to be March?

I'm sitting on the sofa tonight listening to the wind howl outside and wondering what happened to February. It flew by in a rush of travel, the mini-trip to Hawaii, post vacation catching up, and a stack of excellent novels.* And frantically trying to finish two Wonderful Wallabies in time for the twins' birthday last week. I finished the knitting in time but haven't found my way to the Post Office yet. That errand is on my list of things to do tomorrow (along with laundry, cleaning, and packing for the next round of travel).

D has been buried by the firm since just before Christmas with no let up expected until sometime in May. I'm doing my best to entertain myself, but I do miss him. He had a brief reprieve on Leap Day; I was working on a new demo at home when the garage door rumbled at about 3:00. We spent the late afternoon sitting in front of the fire playing British Rails and snuggling with the kitties. After that brief reprieve, his Blackberry rattled early Saturday morning. We haven't both been home and awake for more than an hour straight since.

Like others in the greater DC area, I found a few irresistible deals at the Hanami on Wednesday. If I'm quick, I will be able to wear it to see the Cherry Blossom Festival. If I'm not quick, or I'm out of town for the whole festival, at least I will have had the enjoyment of knitting cherry blossoms this spring.

* Books (without links because I'm feeling lazy and you know how to search Amazon or your local public library's on line catalog)

• Pride and Prejudice
• Kushiel's Scion and Kushiel's Justice but Jacqueline Carey
• Mr. Darcy's Daughters, The Exploits and Adventures of Miss Althea Darcy, The True Darcy Spirit, and The Second Mrs. Darcy by Elizabeth Aston
• A handful of historicals by Eloisa James

5. Sunshine, finally, but no pictures

I was all set to take advantage of the beautiful sunshine this afternoon to photograph my recent knitting production—and recent yarn acquisitions—but my trusty digicam refuses to read any of the memory cards in the house. Something tells me I will have delayed photographic gratification from our quick trip to Hawaii next weekend. The trusty Nikon 35mm takes great pictures, but then we have to wait for processing and digitizing. Maybe D will agree to go camera shopping before we leave on Friday. Or I'll suck it up and use the camera in the iPhone for unsatisfying knitting and vacation photos.

Unfortunately, I can't show you the adorable pink and green Wonderful Wallaby I finished for Miss M's 7th birthday yesterday. Or the pile of hunter green and tan Dark Horse Fantasy that will become her twin B's birthday Wallaby. Or the stunning Waving Lace socks (from the cover of Favorite Socks) in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Red Rover I finished while I was in Ohio last month. Or my finally complete Mr. Greenjeans. Or the two new pairs of socks I started last week.

I'm not doing so well on the no new yarn resolution lately. First, I cheered myself up after the awful day with yarn for Miss M's birthday sweater. Then, when I visited Shannon at Stitch Cleveland two weeks ago, she lightened my mood with a lovely hank of pink wool she dyed with the end of a dyepot. It is absolutely perfect for Hanami. When I arrived home from Ohio, I found the lovely Rockin' Sock Club skein in my mailbox. Last weekend I was hanging out at Knit Happens when Mama E delivered a bunch of sock yarn; two balls of Merino-Tencel Sock Yarn—Gregory and Chocolate—followed me home. Last Monday, the mailman delivered Lucy's stunning January 2008 Sock Club installment.

I was so looking forward to sharing photos of the finished stuff and the lovely new yarn. For now, use your imagination and send happy electronics thoughts my way.

'Tis the night before Christmas

And 2 of 3 handknit gifts are finished. Unfortunately, I am still half a scarf short. I do have some knitting time left before the gift deadline on Wednesday afternoon: the flight to Wausau, Wisconsin tomorrow, hanging out after dinner tomorrow, and a likely 3 hours in the car on Wednesday. On my work trip to Atlanta last week, I managed to sell four skeins of Silk Garden just by knitting and chatting a bit with the woman sitting next to me on the flight home. She admired my scarf, so I shared the pattern and sent her to Knit Happens for yarn. She stopped in on Wednesday and bought colors 47 and 204 so she could make one just like mine.

Here are the details for the finished holiday gifts

Striped scarf for Chris
Pattern: Inspired by Norma and Jared, I cast on 42 stitches and worked K1P1 ribbing, slipping the first stitch of each row. Yarn: Silk Garden, 2 skeins each of colors 86 and 267.
Notions: 4.5 mm Addi Turbos.
Time: December 8 to 16, 2007.

Red Hat for Heather
Pattern: >Koolhaas from Interweave's Holiday Knits 2007. Yarn: Classic Wool in color 206. I used less than 100 grams.
Notions: 4.5 mm bamboo circular needle and DPNs. Cable needle. Usually, I cable without a cable needle, but the k/p crosses while knitting through the back loop required me to use a cable needle for this project.
Time: December 4 to 7, 2007
Mods: none. I will knit another version for me sometime later this winter.

Tonight, D and I enjoyed our traditional Christmas dinner since I'll be flying tomorrow. We also opened our stack of gifts since we would rather sleep in tomorrow morning than wake up extra early to open the presents. I still have to stuff the smaller stack (of unwrapped gifts) into my HUGE suitcase with enough warm clothes for a week in northern Wisconsin. If I had been thinking, I would have shipped everything I ordered to my parents' house to save on the hauling. But I guess I wasn't really thinking the night D and I sat on the sofa and did our Christmas shopping.

There were three splendid knitterly gifts in my pile: a Blue Moon Fiber Arts gift certificate, a Knit Picks gift certificate, and options Harmony tips in all the sizes I use with some extra cables. I will be knitting for D's parents and sisters since they were so generous with the knitting presents this year.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate. And Happy Tuesday to those who do not.

Laundry Day

I woke up this morning to the first full day of freezing temperatures this winter and snow on the ground. Yesterday, I woke up to steadily increasing snowfall. Both days, I put on worn cotton socks because my handknit sock drawer was empty. How did I manage to let this happen? Could it be because I have been busy making new socks? Busy making and wrapping caramels? Just plain lazy? How difficult is it to drop some soap and a bunch of clothes into the big white machine and start it?

Until this fall, all my handknit socks were Regia, Opal, Trekking, and other variations of machine washable and dry-able commercial wool-nylon blends. Now, I have many pairs from Fleece Artist, Socks that Rock, and other luxurious, but not not machine dry-able, wools. While I can tell which socks are safe to put in the dryer, D cannot. It is much safer to drop all the handknits into the "only SpindleRose may wash" basket than into the general colors basket. Which means that there are only clean wool socks when I have the time and inclination to do the laundry and hang it up on the rack in the bathtub.

Cold toes motivate me much better than a general shortage of clean clothes.

Fits and Starts

I actually missed blogging this weekend. Maybe I'll reevaluate that 3 times a week plan and try for the blog marathon. What do you think? I think probably not. I know myself well enough (and the occasionally crazy travel schedule even better) to realize that there will be many days next year with limited or no Internet access; I'm not sure I have any interest in mastering posting from the iPhone or in paying for the necessary Internet access to enable posting from anywhere.

Fits

1. Mr. Greenjeans. I realized when I went to pick up the front band of Mr. Greenjeans that doing the bands before I block it and decide if I like the length of the body would be a bad idea. So Greenjeans is hanging out in blocking block this weekend. He has a date with a steamy iron later this week. In order to set up that date, I need to impose enough order in the stash room studio to be able to open the closet doors and set up the ironing board.

2. A silly scarf. Our neighborhood association adopts families from the local elementary school during the holidays. Our block usually plays Santa for 4 or 5 families. I'm doing a little bit of knitting for the mothers this year. I've got a few crazy novelties in the stash that will be scarves for this little project. For the first scarf, I tried to improvise a wide kerchief-y thing and ran out of yarn before it was really big enough. I ended up knitting a basic 15 stitch wide garter stitch number straight from the first attempt.
   
   

   Pattern:Cast on 15 stitches. Knit garter stitch slipping the first stitch of every row purlwise until you almost run out of yarn. Bind off loosely.
   Yarn: 1 ball Cascade Malizia--about 55 yards. This is a novelty ribbon with little tufts.
   Notions: 9mm bamboo needles.
   Time: The final scarf took about 3 hours to knit and weave in the ends.

Starts

1. Lenore. I mentioned started these socks a few weeks ago, and I knit a bit on them this weekend. I would show a picture, but the raven yarn defies flash photography. I will show a photo as soon as I am home to take one during daylight.

2. Canal du Midi. The KOTR Knitalong chose these for the December - February project. After my summer and fall of sock finishing, I finally started the new sock with the group on December 1. The embarrassing sock yarn stash and the geeky knitting database in which I have queued up almost all the designs in Knitting on the Road with stash yarns make snap starts of these projects possible. So far, this is a fun sock. The traveling stitches are fun and I keep wanting to knit one more row or to finish the current 6 row repeat.

End of NaBlogPo/KniSweMo

I really did post every day this month. While it was challenging, and there were a few days when I truly had nothing to say, it was not as hard as I thought it would be. For those days when I was topic challenged, D did say that I could always post about my "splendiferous husband who is wonderful in every way." That suggestion always helped me come up with a better topic.*

For the rest of this year, I will try to stick to a three evening a week posting schedule. I can do that, and I should be able to come up with enough content to be interesting with that schedule.

On this month's other challenge, I did not quite make it. I am off of Sleeve Island, but not finished. Tomorrow during the big game I will pick up several hundred stitches along the front and neck edges. Then I will knit 11 rows of 2x2 ribbing. If all goes well with that, Mr. Greenjeans has a Saturday night date with a sinkful of Soak and a towel on the wool room floor. I will have a new sweater to wear on my trip to Atlanta next Wednesday. If I had not needed to rip out a week of knitting, I easily could have finished this sweater in a month. But, ripping is part of knitting, so I did not quite make it.

In other news, I have learned my lesson about crowing about no travel for a month. Since I got excited and told many people last weekend, the travel gods smacked me on Tuesday with two (thankfully very short) trips in the three weeks before Christmas. At least I'll be visiting warmer places with nice yarn shops.

* D was not amused by that observation.

More NaKniSweMo

One sleeve down. One left to knit. I was just too tired to be knitting last night, because counting to four was not a problem tonight. Check out the lovely cabled cuff. As you can see, Toni likes Mr. Greenjeans. I'm sure I will, too, once he has two sleeves, a front band, a button, and some blocking. I doubt all that will happen by Friday since I do still have to put in some office time and make another batch or two of caramel. I intend to try, though.

Why kill myself knitting this week? It could have something to do with the little book of exciting ideas for future projects that followed me home from the bookstore today thanks to a 40% off coupon, a return, and free money from Borders. I have browsed through Romantic Hand Knits a few times and finally succumbed to the lure of a ribbon wrap cardigan, a sexy hand knit skirt, silk stockings, and a lacy cloche.

Sleeve Island

Mr. Greenjeans and I are stranded on Sleeve Island. Last night I knit and knit and knit, and unwound and unwound and unwound. Every time I stopped to try on the sleeve for length it did not seem to be getting any closer to full length. I learned that accurately measuring yourself from armpit to wrist is challenging. Tonight I enlisted D in the sleeve measuring two rows before it was time to stop the stockinette and start the cabled rib.

Maybe I'm just really tired, but I don't understand why a cable pattern that makes perfect sense to me when knit flat is causing so much trouble when knit in the round. I knit eight rows of the cuff and started the ninth with the third cable cross and realized that something was very wrong. I ripped back to the first row of ribbing and started it over. It's back to the sleeve mines for me, unless my inability to count to four continues. If that happens, it will be time for bed.

On to the sleeves, for now

The new Mr. Greenjeans body fits much better than the first attempt. After trying it on, I decided to leave the bottom ribbing on waste yarn until after blocking. If blocking out the ribbing shortens the sweater at all, I will add a cable repeat or two and then block again.

I started knitting the first sleeve with magic loop. And quickly gave up and switched to two circs. While I prefer knitting with DPNs over either circular based method, my DPN gauge is usually quite a bit tighter than my circ gauge. To avoid further ripping, I'm sticking with the same needle type and brand for the sleeves.

We moved the bed out of the office this afternoon and moved D's computer into that room. The kittie-girls hate us today because we took away their favorite hiding and sleeping place (under the guest bed), ran the evil vacuum, and closed the doors to both front bedrooms to keep them away from the rearranging chaos.

NaKniSweMo back on track

I have 8 rows left on take 2 of Mr. Greenjeans's body. I should be able to finish that up before bed tonight. Tomorrow I will try it on again and cross my fingers. Then I'll knit sleeves. Ideally, my visit to sleeve island will be very brief, and I will have a finished sweater to show off by the end of next week.

My other project for tomorrow is to uncover all the flat surfaces in the house. The dining room table, kitchen and bathroom counters, night stands, and the sewing machine desk are all covered with stuff. I plan to spend tomorrow alternating 15 minute blocks of surface clearing and blog reading while knitting sleeves (thank you Flylady for that hint and everything else you do). By early afternoon, I should have a neater living space and most of a sleeve.

At some point tomorrow, D and I will start the the guest room / office / studio furniture shuffle. Today, we managed to post the ad for the bed on Freecycle, but did not do any of the furniture rearranging.

NaKniSweMo back on track

It is amazing how much knitting I can do on one day off. And I love how fast Aran weight yarn on 5 mm (US 8) needles knits up. I am back to the cables and should finish the body sometime tomorrow. I pulled it off the needles and tried it on again tonight (but no photos cause I'm lazy today), and the fit is much better. This time, I changed the decreases to a single double decrease in the center of each front. I am also knitting the ribbing on 5 mm instead of 4.5 mm needles. I hope this works. I doubt I have the stamina to knit the body of this sweater a third time.

Ripped

Mr. Greenjeans looks like this again. I finished knitting the body and tried on my new cardigan. Those lovely bust darts added too much length to the front V neck of the cardigan and caused the line where I changed from stockinette to ribbing to droop. A lot. I think I pinched out close to the full 2 inches I added for extra length. And, like Juno, I found that the smaller needles for the cabled rib pulled in way too much, creating a lovely A-frame for my not as flat as it used to be tummy. It fit perfectly across the back.

I'm still in love with this pattern, and I'll try knitting the body one more time. If it still looks horrible on me, I will admit defeat and knit something else. My new plan involves vertical bust darts and not dropping a needle size for the ribbing. We'll see what happens.

I should still be able to finish during NaKniSwaMo. Even though I all the knitting I did on two cross country flights and during the college football games this afternoon, I plan to knit through the BC game tonight, 2 or 3 pro games tomorrow, and all of the Thanksgiving Day games. I also have Wednesday and Friday off next week and a stack of movies from Netflix. I think I can stay on track and maybe even finish by then end of the holiday weekend.

Progress, but no pictures

The second Regia Provence sock looks a lot like the first one did on Monday. Mr. Greenjeans is abount an inch longer than it was on Tuesday and growing. I am exhausted and looking forward to being home with D and the kittie-girls. That is all I've got tonight. I used all available brain cells making my practice teaching presentation in class this afternoon.

Bust Darts Conquered

On my flight to San Jose last Sunday I tackled the math to translate my measurements into the Mr. Greenjeans stitch and row gauge. For guidance, I turned to a Lily Chin's article on shaping in Great Knits. The short version of the math: I need 2 extra inches in the front of my sweater which means 14 rows, or 7 steps, at my gauge for this project.

Tonight, I finally had the chance to pull the work off of the needle and onto waste yarn to try it on. It fits pretty well. The added room in front should keep the transition from stockinette to ribbing level when I wear this sweater. It is a little difficult to tell for sure when all the edges are curling. I was a little worried that I placed the darts too high until I realized that the shoulders were also too high; once the rest of the sweater is pulling down on the shoulders, the darts will be in the right spot.

My NaKniSweMo progress this trip may have been stalled by my inability to pack. I remembered an extra cake of yarn for Mr. Greenjeans, but forgot the smaller needle suggested for the ribbing. Luckily for me, a few colleagues and I went to dinner in Saratoga, CA, this evening, and Knitting Arts was open late for a special event. I ducked in, did a very quick browse of this lovely shop, and found a 24 inch 4.5 mm Addi Turbo needle. Someday, I will get back there to spend a little more time exploring and chatting with the friendly customers knitting in the comfy chairs near the door. Mr. Greenjeans will keep growing on my flight home Friday.

I love training

I knit the figure 8 toe and increased to 64 stitches last night. I knit the rest in my training class today. I even took a 1 or 2 hour break from knitting when I realized I was mostly finished with the foot, but did not have a ruler or template sock handy for foot length comparison. Luckily, my hotel room is across a courtyard from the seminar room. I popped out during our afternoon break to grab another Regia sock for comparison. At this pace, I should have a new pair of socks to wear home on my flight on Friday.

Hedgerow Socks finis!

I met my fall sock knitting goal by finishing my fourth mate today. The gorgeous new sock club yarns that arrived in October and November and knitalong socks tempted me to start a few new pairs before I finished all four old ones, but I stood firm before casting on for any new socks. The new Hedgerows kept my feet toasty on the long flight from Dulles to San Jose this evening. What did I do on that flight? I listed to a few knitting podcasts and cast on for two new pairs of socks—Lenore and a plain stockinette pair in Regia. I also packed some Mountain Colors Weavers Wool and Knitting on the Road so I can start knitting Friday Harbor with the KOTR knitalong.

Pattern: Hedgerow Socks by Jane Cochran from Knitters Review.
Yarn: Araucania Ranco in color 304.
Notions: 2.5 mm Clover bamboo 5" DPNs. These are my new favorite sock sticks. They are pointier and slicker than my usual Brittany toothpicks—much like Crystal Palace DPNs— and I don't feel like they will snap or split if I look at them cross-eyed. Soon I will find a local source and start replacing all my fragile Brittany sets as they disintegrate.
Time: August 28 to November 11, 2007
Mods: None. I knit these exactly as written. As I've said before, I love the round toe Jane used in this pattern. Once the decreases start, the knitting accelerates even more than a traditionally decreased toe, and it is so nice to pull the yarn through the last 8 stitches, weave in the end, and be finished with the sock. The best parts: no need to puzzle over kitchener stitch and a fabulous fit for my feet.

In case you are wondering, I have not abandoned Mr. Greenjeans and NaKniSweMo. I packed the cardigan and my shaping notes and crunched the numbers during takeoff. I knit the bust darts and about 2 inches of the body during the first (before dinner) part of the flight. Tomorrow, I will move the stitches to some sock yarn and try it on.

Surprise!

It is no secret that my favorite gift to wrap new babies in love is Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket. So it should be no surprise that I made a very special BSJ for a fellow knitter and spinner's virtual baby shower. T's baby is now overdue, and I'm overdue on sending my gift to her.

Pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman. I used the version from Knitters Magazine, Fall 1999. You can order your own copy of the pattern from Schoolhouse Press here.
Yarn: Handspun Ashland Bay superwash merino. This fiber was discontinued a few years ago, but I stocked up on the pink and baby blue before it disappeared since it makes fabulous yarn for extra special baby gifts.
Notions: 4.5mm Knit Picks options needles and 5 1/2" buttons.
Time: October 24 to November 10, 2007. I cast on during the World Series opening ceremony, finished the knitting on Halloween, and the seaming and buttons attachment on November 9.
Mods: None at all. This pattern is just about perfect as written.

While I sewed on the buttons this afternoon, I vaguely recalled knitting a baby hat and mitts from this handspun several years ago. I remember doing the finishing in our tiny MIT apartment, so it would have been in 2003 or earlier. I also remember not sending them to the baby I kit them for. Tonight, I found them in the stash and added them to the box for T and M's baby. Wyoming winters are cold and snowy, so I'm sure that baby will be able to use an extra pair of mittens and warm hat.

Divided

I just reached that magical place in a top-down raglan sweater where you stop increasing, put the sleeve stitches onto waste yarn, cast on a few stitches at the underarms, and knit the body. Next up, cardigan bust darts. Thus far in my sweater knitting for myself career, I have mostly ignored the need for that extra bit of shaping in my sweaters. But Enchanting Juno's Mr. Greenjeans fits her model thanks to the extra effort. I want my Mr. Greenjeans to fit me as well.

I know the basic mechanics of adding bust darts and I have done it a few times (in UFOs and not anything I've actually finished). Those past efforts were undertaken rather cavalierly with a vague plan and no actual measuring. This time, I will measure myself carefully and make note of those measurements so I have them for my next sweater alteration project. Tomorrow, I will pull out some references and do all that ugly lovely math.

A nearly perfect evening

A lovely mug of chamomile lavender tea, four episodes of Grey's Anatomy streamed from abc.com, fire in the fireplace, and plenty of wool.

(Belated) Socktober Wrapup

My Socktober was a success. My personal goal was to finish four unfinished pairs. I finished three of them and made significant progress on the fourth odd sock. On the last day of vacation (October 1) I finished The Solstice Slip and wore them home on the long flight from Hawai'i. On my trip to California (October 7) I finished the striped Sockotta pair. On the trip to Bermuda (so technically in November, but I'm still counting last weekend as October for these purposes) I knit the last two rows of the blue cotton Widdershins. I got to the heel on Hedgerow and misplaced the pattern printout which made travel knitting on that sock a challenge since the heel construction is a little bit unusual.

Pattern: Solstice Slip, the June Rockin Sock Club kit.
Yarn: Socks That Rock Lightweight in Firebird.
Notions: 2.5 mm Brittany toothpicks.
Time: Sometime in July to October 1, 2007
Mods: I used the stitch count for the second size, but knit to 9 or 10 stitches/inch instead of 8 for a lovely snug pair of socks.

Pattern: My usual picot top, short row heel, on 64 stitches.
Yarn: Sockotta.
Notions: 2.5 mm Brittany toothpicks.
Time: Sometime in September 2006 to October 7, 2007

Pattern: Widdershins.
Yarn: Jawoll Cotton.
Notions: 2.5 mm Brittany toothpicks.
Time: Sometime in July 2006 to November 1, 2007
Mods: Again, I knit to a much firmer gauge than the pattern called for and increased the stitch count to 64 stitches. I adjusted the gusset and heel counts a little to end up with a pair of socks that fit me pretty well after much trial and error. Now that I've tried it once, I doubt I will knit another pair of toe up socks with a gusset and flap construction. I love the fit of the modified short row heel and mini-gusset in the Solstice Slips, so I will probably use that in my future toe up endeavors.

More November insanity

I'm joining NaKniSweMo 2 because I can. Christmas gift knitting foiled my plans to join last year. This year, I'm not planning any gift knitting, and I have plenty of November knitting time available; I fly to California next week and have 5 days off for Thanksgiving. My target is Mr. Greenjeans in some natural sheepy gray yarn H brought back from New Zealand for me several years ago.

A beach picture for Claudia

Solstice Slip at Tunnels Beach, originally uploaded by SpindleRose.

Yesterday, I went to the beach. D stayed at the resort and worked on a court filling due on Monday. I played in the surf, took some pictures, and knit a few rows on Solstice Slip. I gave up on the knitting when the rain showers became more frequent than the sunny spells. There are lots more beach pictures over at Flickr in the Kauai 2007 Set.

Summer of Socks wrap-up

I pretty much only knit socks this summer. I did not, however manage to meet all of my Summer of Socks goals. This is mostly because my image of how much knitting time I have and the reality of how much knitting time I have just do not match.

My total tally for SOS2007: 3 finished pairs, all of them started before SOS officially started (the Summer Monkeys missed by only a few hours, though), and added 3 new odd socks in the odd sock basket.

l to r: Travel disaster Hedgerow Socks, Solstice Slip, Sockotta basic sock knit last fall, and blue cotton Widdershins that started SOS2007 too long, but now fits perfectly.

Let's review my SOS goals:

1. Knit more sock yarn than I buy Umm, not so much. Enough said. I would post photographic evidence, but the jump drive with my photo archive is at home, and I'm here.
2. Finish a pair of two of socks from 2007 sock club yarn Again, not so much. I've knit 1-3/4 Rockin Sock Club Solstice Slip. I will finish sock two soon, but not before midnight tonight. Here is what sock 2 looked like as we departed Washington, DC, for this year's tropical vacation. During 10 hours of flights yesterday, I turned the heel and knit about 1/3 of the leg. And read two novellas from a fun trashy romance collection.
3. Knit mates to odd socks Again, not so much. I added three mateless socks to the collection, and only finished one pair that had started SOS2007 as a complete mateless sock. The travel disaster last month did contribute to the addition of two mateless socks to my collection.

Too much travel, not enough knitting

Someday, I will sleep in my own bed for 8 consecutive nights. The my calendar for the next few months is shaping up, that someday may not happen until November. This week it's a new Ohio city every day. Which is OK. I like Ohio—it's green and sunny and not too hot here. The rolling hills make for a pleasant drive by scenery. Unless I have no knitting in hand.

I cleverly packed one sock project for this trip so I would perhaps manage to finish a pair. Yesterday, I finished the first Solstice Slip sock on my morning flight from Washington, DC, to Cleveland. Sometime in the afternoon, two of my Brittany toothpicks snapped. Today, I rode in a car from Cleveland to Columbus with a couple of detours to visit customers along the way. WITH NO KNITTING. At least I could read SheepThrills on my iPhone.

After checking into my home for the night in Columbus, I dragged my co-worker to the Yarn Shop for a new set of size 1 dpns. And a skein of souvenir sock yarn—Araucania Ranco in color 304 which reads primarily blue with hints of purple to me. Before bed tonight, I will to cast on for Jane's Hedgerow Socks so I have something to knit in the car tomorrow.

So much for clever plans. I will be spending enough time in the car and at O'Hare between now and Saturday that I might be able to finish the new socks on this trip. That's all I've got tonight. The camera stayed home this trip. And I need to get some sleep.

Happy trails!

Odd and otherwise incomplete socks

Or confessions of a chronic starter.

I signed up for the Summer of Socks. Since then, I have been a bad SOS blogger: no "official" (started within the guidelines pairs) and only a couple of blog posts. And I keep forgetting to send updates in to my reader. Too much pesky work has limited my time to blog and my time to knit. I am finally knitting an official Summer of Socks pair. I enjoy checking up on everyone else's progress. And I am making headway on my personal Summer of Socks challenges: turn odd socks into wearable pairs and knit a few sock club skeins.

Here is where my odd sock basket stood at the beginning of July. From left to right:

• Picot edged, top down Regia from the sock pattern in my head. I started this sock for in-class knitting during the fall of 2003.
• Baby cabled cuff from Minds Eye Sock Club merino-tencel. The pattern is loosely based on the Inside Out pattern from the April Rockin Sock Club shipment. Knit past spring.
• Ribbed sock I absolutely do not remember knitting. What does that say about my feeble brain?
• Jawoll cotton Widdershins variation. I knit this sock last summer, but abandoned it because I made the foot too long. Right after taking this photo, I ripped back to past the start of the gusset and started knitting it again. I'm now past where I started ripping.
• Another picot topped sock. This one is Plymoth Sockotta. I knit it on a few fall 2006 business trips and decided to knit wool socks instead of cotton ones as the weather got chilly.
• Dark green handspun in a rib pattern I will have to look up before I start the second sock in the pair. This one has been lurking in the unfinished sock collection for many years.

These are the socks that are not even finished enough to be called "odd":

• Blue Flammegarn Socks from Folk Socks for D. This was my emergency sock to knit while hanging out with H for a year or so. We used to spend a lot of time chatting and watching sports, and I would occasionally arrive without knitting. I finally got smart and stashed a sock project in an end table at her house.
• January from And A Time to Knit Stockings (scroll down for the new format of this out of print favorite). I started before the D back to school odessy started.
• Traveler's Stocking from KOTR. I started this with the KOTR Knit Along in October 2006 and abandoned them a few months later.
• Falling Leaves in Socka. Given the date of the Knitty issue, I would guess that I started this sock sometime in late 2005.
• Hiiuma mate. Also from KOTR. Started in June 2007. Last Friday I finished the first sock and started the second one.

The travel never ends chez SpindleRose. Thusday D and I head to Florida for a few days of R&R before my annual work conference. Luckily, the session I have to present are early in the week again, so I should be able to hang out in other people's sessions and knit more socks.

Spring and Summer Socks

Pattern: Monkey from Knitty.
Yarn: Fleece Artist Basic Merino Socks in Mermaid and Cornflower.
Notions: 2.5 mm Brittany toothpicks.
Time: Mermaid: April 19 to May 16 2007. Cornflower: June 20 to July 18, 2007. Twice, I managed to knit a complete pair in a month! In those same months, I acquired yarn for another 6 or so pairs. So much for using sock yarn faster than I buy it.
Mods: None. I knit the pattern exactly as written both times.

Pattern: My own. Toe up in K5 P2 rib, 64 stitches, figure 8 cast on, and short row heel.
Yarn: Brown Sheep Wildfoote Luxury Sock Yarn in Mums.
Notions: 2.25 mm Brittany needles.
Time: April 21 to July 9, 2007.
Mods: These socks looked like this when the summer of socks started. Finishing them was a minor accomplishment. Now that they are finished and I wore them for the finished socks shot, I am completely happy with the way they fit. They are a bit small across the instep, and one of the bind offs is tight. I think I will toss these into the sock drawer with the others and if I turn out not to love them this winter, I will re-knit the heels and legs.

That brings my Summer of Socks tally to two pairs: one "new" and one "old." I am planning to continue through the rest of the summer of socks similarly with one pair from shiny new (usually sock club) yarn and the mate to an odd sock on the needles. Ideally, I will also pair these projects—a fancy sock and a plain one—so I have handy sock knitting for all situations.

Up next: STR Firebird and blue cotton socks I started last summer (more on those later).

Monkey 2 in Atlanta

My second pair of Monkey socks and I are in Atlanta this week. Yesterday, we enjoyed a nice walk in Centennial Olympic Park after lunch, but it was too hot outside to actually sit down on a park bench and knit while watching children play in the Fountain of Rings. I knit most of the leg on my flight down from DC on Sunday.

And yes, this is my second pair of Monkey socks. I knit my first pair from Fleece Artist Merino Sock in Mermaid in late April and early May. Someday soon I photograph them for the Finished Project gallery.

Summer of Socks!

In preparation for the Summer of Socks 2007, I bought a little bit of sock yarn this month. And the mailman brought packages from both the Minds Eye and Rockin' Sock Clubs. And on Wednesday at Knit Happens, I added a summery skein of Fleece Artist Merino Sock yarn to my plans. I would show you pictures of all the new yarn, but I have not had the daylight free hour required to get good stash beauty shots. Tonight, I am in Atlanta, all the new yarn except for the Fleece Artist is home in Virginia, and hotel room lights and my tiny camera do not make for good sock in progress photos.

Like Claudia, I am a fan of the LIFO system of sock stash management. I started my first "official" SOS07 pair when I got sick of knitting Tulip ties right after I paid for the yarn on Wednesday. Then I read the various SOS contest rules and realized that I jumped the gun by about 10 hours. I'm OK with that; I did not join this knit-along for the fabulous prizes. I joined for the camaraderie, to "meet" some more sock knitters, and challenge myself to finish a few of the dozen or so unfinished sock pairs lurking in the wool closet and knit up at least a skein of the Minds Eye and Rockin Sock Club skeins that have arrived in my stash since the beginning of the year. I will now be winning the most socks contest (I do not have enough time to knit most days), I do not plan to do any sock designing this summer, and I will probably finish the current Fleece Artist Monkeys before I go on vacation July 4--so the vacation socks will fall inside of the rules.

Blocking Block

I have three projects ready for blocking, but I cannot manage to string enough useful time together to accomplish the blocking. Tonight my very limited home and not sleeping time went to packing up the last round of sold stash for shipping.

I finished knitting Tulip's main pieces over a week ago. I finished Mom's cruise shawl in April. I'm going to see Mom on Friday--I would much rather hand her the shawl in person than trust it to the USPS. And Icarus spent all winter and spring waiting for his bath and moment to shine. I want to finish these projects and add them to my list of finished things. Even though I KNOW blocking lace is magic and that the Damask will bloom and drape after a nice soak, the ability to make that magic eludes me.

I have, however, successfully sold lots of yarn in the past three weeks. I bought more, too--but I spent birthday cash and stash sale proceeds for the new yarn, so it is allowed even though I did not buy it in May or at shops I have never visited.

If I could locate the project, the camera, and daylight at the same time, I could share my finished Monkey Socks. I knit them in about 3 weeks (late April to early May), and left them in the project bag until yesterday needing only one toe grafted and ends woven in. While weaving in the first sock's ends, I discovered that I dropped a stitch when grafting that toe. Some swearing and 30 minutes turned that mistake into a pair of warm socks. I so do not need wool socks right now, but I will be happy to have the extra pair in my sock drawer come November.

Cats steal yarn

Back in March, I fell off the no stash bandwagon and came home from the Knit Happens birthday sale with enough Damask to knit Tulip from Rowan 41. I knit a big swatch because it took 3 tries for me to get gauge. I knit the back in 9 days. Sometime between March 18 and my mid-April trip to California, 2 balls of the yarn disappeared. I have looked everywhere in the stash closet and in the rest of the house with no luck. Tomorrow, I'll be calling every Rowan stockist I can think of in search of more in the same dye lot. I am certain that as soon as I find some and it arrives, the cats will return the balls they stole.

Knitting in the News

If you did not catch Marketplace on your local public radio station this evening (because you were watching March Madness, perhaps), click here to hear the annoying, but cute story. At some level, it was the same old story we have been seeing for years—knitting is hot, knitting is relaxing; and all the starts are doing it. Maybe Stephanie's Representing tour will change the news coverage to something more serious.

Monsoon Unhappiness

I will not be knitting the Rockin Sock Club Monsoon yarn in the beautiful Inside Out! pattern. I want to desperately, but the pattern as written at 8 stitches per inch has about an inch of positive ease on my US size 6.5 feet. There is no way my hands will be able to take knitting the Mediumweight yarn at 8.5 stitches per inch or tighter to make socks that would fit--and be stiff as boards on my feet. Even knitting mediumweight on 1s to get 8 stitches per inch is something of a struggle for me. I tried on the toe plus an inch or two of foot last night and the ribbing did not pull out at all; it flopped around my foot. I'd show a photo or the oversized sock, but I've already ripped it out in an attempt to figure out a way to knit the foot on fewer stitches. If my addled brain can take it tonight, I might rewrite the pattern for fewer stitches. However, I'm more likely to knit the Monsoon yarn in another pattern at a gauge more comfortable for my hands and knit the Inside Out! socks as written from a thinner (like the first Lucy sock club yarn on teeny tiny needles. This knitting thing is, after all, supposed to be fun and relaxing—not a major struggle.

Now to find a sock pattern happy at 7.5 to 8 stitches per inch.

Spey Valley and Other Socks

It has not been all scarves this winter. I have finished only one pair of socks since the start of the year. I also whipped through the foot of another (unfinished since 2003) sock during my February travels. If you care, it is Regia Jacquard Color 5177.

Pattern: Spey Valley from Knitting on the Road. With my mods (see below), I will knit these socks again. I love the extra details—a braid and extra pattern in the rib at the top—on the cuffs. I also like the rib on top of my foot; it makes for a snugger sock.
Yarn: Froelich Blauband Multicolor in a discontinued mottled green. This yarn is the classic wool and nylon sock blend, but it feels much softer and silkier than Regia or Trekking. I bought this yarn on my 2001 post-Cummington visit to Webs. So it is fairly well aged. I have enough yarn—and all the extra reinforcing thread—left over to do heels and toes on another pair. I don't know that I have stash sock yarn in a coordinating color, but I'm sure I'll find something.
Notions: My usual 2.25 mm Brittany toothpicks.
Time: I started the pair December 1, 2006, with the KOTR knitalong. I finished on March 8.
Mods: This pair took me longer than usual because I ended up frogging and reknitting the foot of one sock. The pattern as written works the heel over fewer than half the 63 cuff stitches. The instep and heel did not fit over my heel and were much too tight across the instep. I added 6 stitches to the heel flap and did the instep decreases on the other side of the rib on the side of the foot. I could be clearer in my mod description, but the socks are currently in the laundry. I will write up the mods more clearly for the page in the new 2007 Finished Projects album.

Up next: STR Monsoon.

Scarf obsessed

Normally, I'm sock obsessed. This winter, I knit scarves and only finished one pair of socks. First, I knit two red ones that I failed to mail to the Red Scarf Project; there is always next year for the mailing part. Then I knit the diagonal chenille "You're a Doctor!" scarf for my friend Jennie. In January and February, I used Scarf Style. First, I knit two versions of Backyard Leaves from ancient stash yarn liberated from abandoned projects. Then I knit Ruffles from that lovely chocolate brown alpaca. I think I'm finished with scarves for a while.

Details on the 2007 Scarves

Red Scarves
Patterns: On the left, a modified version of the cabled scarf in a very old Reynolds leaflet. On the right, two cable scarf from One Skein.
Yarn:Reynolds Paterna from the deep recesses of the stash. A crepey cabled wool yarn. I had some issues with the plys untwisting as I knit. It does provide good cable pop.
Notions: US 8 / 5 mm needles
Time: Each scarf was about 1 weekend of wall to wall football watching knitting.
Mods: I changed the number of cable repeats for the One Skein scarf to maintain the ribbed area to cabled area ratio on the smaller yarn and needles version that I knit. I took a couple of cables out of the other scarf to make it narrower, shorter, and skipped the called for fringe. I made those mods to accommodate my 2 instead of 4 skeins of the called for yarn.

Backyard Leaves
Pattern: Backyard Leaves from Scarf Style..
Yarns: The Green is Maratona (a long since discontinued worsted weight cabled merino). The maroon is Patons Classic Merino.
Notions: US 8 / 5 mm needles
Time: A total of about 5 weeks for both scarves. I started the first one January 9 and sewed them both together on February 15.
Mods: None for the green scarf. For the maroon one, I added 1 pattern repeat to each side for added length and 8 stitches (on each side 2 in the reverse stockinette and 2 in the double-knit border) for extra width because H asked for a longer and wider scarf.

I tried to take photos of H with the finished scarf when I visited Boston in February, but it was so cold outside that my digicam refused to work. I have not worn mine yet--green scarf plus red coat screams Christmas a bit too much for me. If we have anymore cold, rainy days, I will wear it with my khaki trench coat.

I finished knitting Ruffles, but I still have to weave in the ends. It was way to warm to wear it in Miami last month and now it Northern Virginia is too warm for alpaca scarves. I expect that to change just in time for Mom and Dad to arrive for their visit this weekend.

Liberating UFOs

This year, I am trying to be more realistic about what projects I will actually finish and wear. And what D will actually wear. To whit, I am looking at the bins of unfinished sweaters with an eye to which lots of yarn should be liberated from their original projects and reclaimed for something I can use in my wardrobe. I recently came up with two TOADs* that are now well on their way to successful finished projects.

Exhibit 1. Reclaimed wool.
When H visited in January, she asked me to knit a "not neutral colored" scarf for her. We went stash diving, and came up with maroon Classic Wool that I bought before he went back to MIT in 2000. I knit a cabled cardigan vest for D. D told me when I had nearly finished knitting the front bands that he would never wear it because it was a cardigan vest and not a pullover. Doh! I guess I should have asked him about style before I started (and almost finished) knitting. H and I liberated the yarn, skeined it up on the niddynoddy, gave it a good soak and spin in the washing machine, and hung it up to dry. I knit a modified Backyard Leaves from Scarf Style for H, and have three skeins, or just about 670 yards, left for other (felted?) projects.

Exhibit 2. Oversized sweater that will be something smaller.
I also pulled some ancient Maratona from a bin to knit Backyard Leaves for myself. In the process I liberated the back of a boxy, circa 1990, cabled pullover I started my first senior year (I think) in college. I remember splurging on 16 balls of this then spendy yarn ($80, special ordered from Woolcott to knit a sweater from a fall Vogue Knitting late one summer. Note the scrunched up knitting on a straight needle. I probably have not knit anything on straights since I started that sweater in the dim recesses of the early 90s. Sometime in the past 15 or so years, something did a little chewing on both the sweater piece and the unknit balls. There's no evidence of critters anymore except for chewed plys on the outside of some balls. Given the boxy shape and heavy cabling of the original sweater, I should be able to get a lovely sweater out of the 13 balls (1575 yards) I did not use for the scarf. Even if I must sacrifice a chunk of each ball to wool munching critters.

*TOAD = Trashed Object, Abandoned in Disgust (from the Original Knitlist FAQs)

Observation from D

"You can tell we're DINKS who travel too much. I kissed you goodbye and you went right back what you were doing."

He's on his way to Eugene, Oregon, to spend two days meeting with an expert in one of his cases. I leave for a sales conference at headquarters in Santa Clara tomorrow. D still does not know if he's flying home or to Minneapolis Tuesday night. I fly home Thursday. My biggest complaint: I get to see three of four NFL playoff games this weekend. The one I most want to watch (Pats at Chargers) is the one I will miss.

I have been knitting, but the light has been horrible. And D decided to take the camera with him, so no pictures of red scarves yet. Or of my nearly finished gray seed stitch jacket. I have a few rows of collar left to knit and the side and underarm seams to sew. And perhaps raglan seams to re-stitch. I plan to wear the jacket to California tomorrow. It's the perfect sweater for airplanes and California in January.

Two Red Scarves

Are my first 2 finished projects of 2007. I finished one in 2006, but did not blog about it, block if, or ship it until 2007, so I'm counting it in the tally for this year. Please note the change in the counters on the left indicating that I have used 4 skeins of yarn for these two scarves. I would post a photo, but I could not take a decent photo with flash. Please come back tomorrow for photographic evidence and project details.

Next up, something green. I asked my Stash Database what yarn I should use for my 2007 Productive Spinners Stashalong, and it pulled up Green Fleur de Laine that I stashed when Pingouin discontinued and Webs closed out this favorite yarn 10 years ago.

The leading contenders for a green cardigan are Samus, the cabled jacket I picked up the pattern for a couple of weeks ago, and A Cardigan for Arwen. I thought about knitting Samus from this yarn last year, but moving last winter got in the way of that plan. I adore the all over cabling and slimming waist shaping in Kathy Zimmerman's jacket, but I'm not sure if the cables will show up well in dark green. I love Arwen, but I'm not sure if I really want another hooded cardigan, given that Rogue is still in pieces in the wool closet. Tonight, I swatch. Doodles in yarn usually help my decision-making process. As do comments from readers (hint hint hint).

Finally, many asked why are you moving again early next year after my last post. Ri