Marriage Equality!

No knitting in this post either. I do have knitting to share, I just haven't gotten to posting it quite yet.

This is just to say -- in 30 days my brother and his partner of over 20 years can legally marry in California. I am so thrilled. Can't wait for the wedding, in fact.


Stuart and John get the happy news.

Here is a story on the subject, and you can see my brother Stuart and my BIL-to-be in a video on that page.

They were in fact married in 2004 in San Francisco City Hall, but, along with several thousand others, had their marriage declared void by the courts.

Now they can do it again, with a party and everything, and it will be legal.

Much as I hate to add a down note to this joyous announcement, I must. Those who favor marriage discrimination are trying to qualify an initiative for the November ballot that would write discrimination into our state constitution.

I for one plan to do all I can to oppose those efforts. Let us move toward less discrimination, not more.

This is just to say

Full disclosure -- there is no real knitting in this post. Only some fake knitting in one of the parodies. One of the very bad parodies, penned by myself. Forgive me.

Many of you would probably recognize the poem "This is Just to Say", by William Carlos Williams, from high school English. The one where the guy eats the plums from the ice-box that his wife was probably saving for breakfast, and fails to apologize, but peremptorily says, "forgive me". I hadn't thought about this poem much at all, in high school or since, until it was read and parodied on a recent episode of This American Life. TAL is one of my favorite shows, BTW, and I highly recommend it.

Go ahead and click on the first link above to read the poem. It will take you all of about 10 seconds to read it. We'll wait.

Back already? OK.

Ira Glass, the host of This American Life, says that this is probably one of the most parodied pieces of poetry ever. He also takes the poet to task for never apologizing for eating the plums, for BS-ing us with "you were probably saving them" (oh, he knew, he knew) and for peremptorily commanding her to "forgive me". Ha! I can see that Ira would not forgive, not with this sort of flimsy excuse for a note.

Ira suggests that an internet search for "this is just to say parody" will bring up many, many examples of parodies of this poem, and he was right, of course. Here are a few of my favorites.

Ahem. So I have taken the liberty of writing a few parodies of my own. Please feel free to add your own in the comments. It's not hard, and it's fun, in a sick kind of way.


This is just to say

I burned the scarf
you gave me
for my birthday
last year

and which you probably
thought I would love
when you spun the yarn
and knit each stitch

Forgive me
it was hideous
so scratchy
and so orange


This is just to say

I have run away
with my
personal trainer
from the gym

the gym you bought me
the gift membership for
including
the personal training

and you were
probably hoping
I’d become
more fit

Forgive me
his six-pack abs
are so perfect
and his pecs so hard


C'mon, give it a go. Release your inner poet!

A trip to the bead store

I went to the bead store yesterday. A trip to the bead store (or JoAnn's, or Michael's) invariably results in new beads or other materials for stitch markers. Do I need new stitch markers? I do not.



This, however, is much more than a stitch marker. It is an adjustable pattern row counter, seen here in the 6-row pattern repeat version. I started using it last night, and I love it.

In my first attempt at stitch markers, I made a two-row pattern row counter. Yes, I do sometimes have trouble counting to two rows, why? C'mon, most of my knitting is done while multi-tasking in some way -- listening to an audiobook or podcast, watching TV, watching soccer, etc. Isn't yours?

I've been using the two-row counter for toes of socks and such, and I actually find it very helpful. It wasn't helping me, though, with my Sonnet sleeve, which needs increases every 6 rows. I was ending up with somewhat random increases, and hoping they would average out properly. Well, that's no way to run a railroad, as the saying goes.

Enter the 6-row counter. As before, the idea is that on every round I move my needle down into the next loop closer to the bead, until I got to the loop closest to the bead. When the marker came around again, I knew it was time to increase again, and to move the needle up into the first loop again. For me, this works like a dream.

And to steal yet another idea from Turtlegirl's blog, this one is adjustable for different numbers of rows. Genius! One bead, one head pin, six split rings and six lobster claw clasps, and I have a 6-row counter. In fact, I should have made this with only five lobster claw clasps -- I attached the bead to a lobster claw and could have attached it straight to the split ring. This way, however, it can do double-duty as a row marker if I want it to.

If I need fewer rows for my pattern repeat, I remove some loops. I can add more just as easily.

While I was at it, I tried various other types of stitch and row markers:



The marker from my first batch is there for comparison, and the Clover openable marker is there for scale.

They are: two more two-row (but now adjustable!) row markers made with head pins, a single marker made with bead wire, a crimp bead and a split ring, and then one of my first batch of markers. You can see that I made the same mistake design feature with the one on the far left that I did with the 6-row one. The lowest lobster claw clasp is not necessary, unless I want to use it for a row marker (the kind you attach to a stitch instead of hanging on the needles).

The trick with the lobster claw clasps and split rings can make any of your existing stitch markers into row counters. I bought packs of 25 of each for about $13.

Thank you, Turtlegirl! Check out her Etsy shop for more genius creations.

My First February Baby Sweater

This is my first February Baby Sweater, but it’s certainly not the last. In fact, the second one is more than half done. I thought three skeins would be enough for two sweaters, but no, it’s pretty clear it won’t be.

This was a fun knit, although I had some confusion where the pithy pattern says to start the sleeves “at 4-1/2 inches”. At first I thought this must mean, 4-1/2 inches from starting the lace pattern, but no, it means 4-1/2 inches from the beginning. I added a little length to the body and arms (about 1”) since this worsted weight yarn is giving me a larger size than a lighter yarn would. I’m adding even a bit more in the second sweater.



I love this pattern and would make it again in the future. I especially love the buttons (from JoAnn’s), which in real life match the sweater more closely than in this picture.



The yarn is mostly cotton with some merino. I liked it better than knitting with 100% cotton, which tends to hurt my hands. I didn't like it as much as knitting with all wool, though, but this baby lives in St. Louis. Although cotton was the "obvious" choice, I tend to think most every fiber is improved by blending it with wool, but that's just my personal bias. Wool wicks, you know. My LYS owner, Warren, said a yarn rep had told him she was much cooler on a vacation in Italy in cotton/wool blends than in all cotton.



I shamelessly procrastinated on wrapping and shipping this sweater so that I could show it off at knit night.



The next one is well under way.

Details: Cascade Sierra (worsted weight), more than 1-1/2 skeins, size 7 KnitPicks Options metal circs.

Size: I don't really know. EZ famously says, "Babies come in a variety of sizes." I just hope that at some point the size of the baby and the size of the sweater match up.

Pattern: "Baby Sweater on Two Needles", commonly known as the "February Baby Sweater", from Elizabeth Zimmerman's "Knitter's Almanac".

Modifications: Knit sleeves in the round and picked up the underarm stitches when re-joining the body, for a completely seamless sweater. There are no buttonholes, the buttons just cover metal snaps.

All future baby girls coming into my life just may receive this sweater.

Sock Lobster Love!

The Crazy Conservative Socks are done. In fact, they have been finished for some time, but I have fallen out of the habit of blogging regularly.

No apology from me, though, because I have taken the pledge. The Blogging Without Obligation pledge. Personally, I think you should thank me for not blogging daily, because you would all be bored senseless, but whatever.

To the knitting!



To those of you who have been knitting socks for even a short time, this should be a pretty familiar sight. No doubt those of you who don't knit socks have seen similar sights, but in this case, this is entirely fingering-weight yarn left over from socks I have knit. Which means I have tiny balls of yarn in other weights also sitting around somewhere, just not in this picture. Some of this yarn was just too nice to let sit around this way. It deserved a better fate. (Some didn't, and it is still sitting around.)

More importantly, I had sufficient quantities of some of it to actually justify doing something with it. I picked just these:



Not only are there more than just scraps here, but I love most of these yarns.

The pink is leftover Dream in Color Smooshy, which I won in a contest and used for my Flow Motion socks.

The purple is hand-dyed by J.L. Yarnworks, and I love it! I used it in my purple monkeys, which I loved so much and yet gave away. This was traumatic, and I asked Ms. Yarnworks to dye me some more purple sock yarn, which she very obligingly did. I have been meaning to post a picture of that new yarn, but the light was so bad for a while there, and I haven't taken a picture of it yet. I love the new yarn too, and I might have to make more Monkeys to commemorate the others.

The blue yarn on the left is from my Waving Lace socks, and the blue yarn on the right is from my Stanfield 196 socks. (BTW -- I now own Leslie Stanfield's excellent stitch pattern book, and it is beyond me why she is referred to in so many places as "Stansfield", with two letter S's, when her name has only one S. It could be because her book is out of print, but that's not much of an excuse, really. But I digress.)

I ended up not using the Waving Lace yarn at all, so I still have that. The only commercial yarn in the lot is a solid, and had to stand in for some of the Purple Monkey yarn. I wish I had had more of the Purple Monkey sock yarn left, but alas I didn't.



You can see here that the purple on the legs of the socks doesn't match. Ah, well. Bonus -- you can see that the Purple Monkeys sock yarn is very gorgeous. The scanner can't get its color right at all.

They look too big in the photos, don't they? But now, after a trip through the wash, they fit ju-u-u-ust right.



They are very Harlequin-esque. One might even say, ugly. But a pair is somehow so ugly they're cute.

These socks do fit well. The areas of the picked-up stitches between areas of color feel a bit odd when I first put the socks on, but after that they are not noticeable.

For those of you who might be interested, here are the yarn amounts used (I tried to make a pretty table, but I don't know how to get blogger to display it correctly):

Pink Smooshy: starting weight 1.9 oz.; Sock One used 0.6 oz.; Sock Two used 0.6 oz.; total used, 1.2 oz.

Purple Monkey: starting weight 1.0 oz.; Sock One used 0.3 oz.; Sock Two used 0.6 oz.; total used, 0.9 oz.

Solid purple yarn: starting weight 1.0 oz.; Sock One used 0.2 oz.; total used, 0.2 oz.

Stanfield 196: starting weight 1.1 oz.; Sock One used 0.2 oz.; Sock Two used 0.1 oz.; total used, 0.3 oz.

Total for each sock: 1.3 ounces.

These amounts were all weighed on our handy-dandy electronic postal scale. The socks are women's size 8, knit on a KnitPicks 2.5mm 32" circ., magic-loop style, as always.



And here are the leftovers (of the leftovers). The blue yarn there (from the Waving Lace socks) wasn't used, but the other blue yarn was pretty much used up.

Modifications: the original pattern is a men's, I re-sized for my feet. The on-line picture is too dark and seems to show the colors arranged as I have them, but I now realize that the pattern is written with the colors arranged differently.

Would I make these again? Actually, I might. The design is interesting to knit, although I have some quarrels with the way the pattern is written -- it could be a lot clearer. But now I know how it goes, so that's no longer a problem. It's a pretty good way to use up leftovers of solid or semi-solid yarns that go together, and turn scraps into socks -- what's not to like about that? There are a lot of ends to weave in, but that wouldn't be enough to stop me. It can also be easily adjusted for different sizes. Now that I know more precisely how much yarn of the various colors I would need, I just might be able to use this again to turn scraps into socks.

Recycled Sweaters live on!

In case you're still in suspense over my lobster claw / sock, I did in fact finish it and have even worn the pair a couple of times. I have pictures, too, that I will put up.

But for today, we are all about the recycled sweater love.

My friend Thek, who lives in Chicago-land, picked up some thrift store sweaters and a belt and made this cute teddy bear, sweater and bag:



Thek says: I would just like to add that the bag cost $2.90 to make. $2 for the sweater and $.90 for the belt from Salvation Army. The sweater the bear is wearing came out of the same $2 sweater. The bear was made out of felt from another $2 sweater from which I have lots of other left-over felt. If you know how much yarn it takes to make a felt purse, you know what a savings this is.



And here she is, showing off her creations.

What great projects! I have to say, though, that thrift stores in the Chicago area are probably better treasure troves of feltable sweaters than those around here. I'll have to keep looking.

The Top Ten Five Ways I am Exactly Very Much Sort of Kind of Like the Yarn Harlot

Yep, that's me.

Exactly Very much Sort of Kind of like the famous Yarn Harlot.

And I'll tell you the top ten five reasons why.

5. I like to knit. A lot.

4. I like to knit socks, and almost always have one on the needles.

3. I'm a famous author and speaker.

3. Zillions of people read my blog and in fact my every word.

3. I knit all of my socks on DPN's.

3. I take pictures of my "traveling sock" everywhere I go.

3. OK, I'm female, and short, all right?

2. Um, I live in Canada North America.

And the number one, top reason that I'm kinda sorta like the Yarn Harlot:

1. I was knitting this very fiddly sock, see, and I had gotten to the very tip of one of the points in this weird sock construction and was just reaching for the scissors to cut the tail, when -- I dropped the sock.

And I was still holding the tail.

I think we all know from reading Stephanie's account of this very thing how heart-breaking this can be.

Mine may have been just a tiny bit easier to recover from, though.

And now I have this:




Doesn't that resemble a lobster claw much more than a sock?

Yeah, I thought so, too.

Crazy Conservative Socks

As far as I can tell from Ravelry and the internet, the only other pair of these in existence is the sample for the pattern. Maybe there’s a good reason for that!

These are actually a lot of fun to knit (once I figured out the pattern instructions, which IMO could be clearer and more detailed), but I’m not sure yet how the finished sock will be. The pattern is by Gerdine Crawford-Strong, and can be downloaded free here.

BTW – the name I have given these socks is not a political commentary – the published pattern name is “Conservative Socks”, but mine are pink, purple and bright blue.

Ms. Crawford-Strong originated the “Strong Heel”, not named for its strength but for her. I don’t know all of the details of it, but it is supposed to make more attractive socks with self-striping yarn, with less interruption of the stripe pattern for the heel. There are a number of examples in blogland and on Ravelry. It reminds me a bit of Cat Bordhi’s “Cedar” construction, although again I don’t know the details of that.


Picture 1: Cast-on, ribbing, and most of Section 1 triangle. It will be decreased down to a point, then the next section begins in the “V”. Section 1 is Dream in Color Smooshy, last seen in the “Flow Motion” socks.


Picture 2: Section 2, mostly done. It starts with a triangle at the bottom, then parallelograms up each side of the Section 1 triangle (nearly done with second parallelogram), and then there will be a triangle on the top tying together the two parallelograms. Section 2 is the J.L. Yarnworks yarn, which is much, much prettier in person, but the scanner doesn’t seem to like it as much as I do, which is lots. It last starred in my “Purple Monkey” socks.


Picture 3: Section 3 done, heel turn done. Section three includes all of the increases, sort of like the gusset of a traditional sock pattern. The heel turn is done over all of the heel stitches (blue triangle at the back of the heel) plus all of the increased “gusset” stitches (that is, over enough stitches to be the equivalent of the sock circumference). The pink is the Smooshy, of course, and the blue is Trekking yarn, previously seen in my “Falling Water” socks.

The pattern picture that downloaded looked as though Section 1 and Section 3 should be the same color, although that's not how the directions read. I decided to make them the same color. I ordered the back issue this was originally published in (hoping for clearer instructions, and there were some other interesting patterns in it), and the magazine picture clearly shows that indeed Section 3 was knitted in a different color than Section 1. Well, I still like my choice. Also -- the pattern is actually not even in the magazine -- there is some background explanation and a template for designing your own crazy socks, but you have to go to the website for the actual pattern. Crazy, no?

Anyway, this is a fun way to use up some yarn leftovers now that I've figured out the techniques for this sock. One of the reasons I started looking for sock patterns for bits and bobs of leftover sock yarn is that I had a lot of the Smooshy left over after the Flow Motion socks -- nearly half the skein -- and probably 1/3 of a skein of J.L. Yarnworks yarn left after the Monkeys -- and I could not let them just sit around. I just had to turn both of those beautiful yarns into more socks.

I'm weighing all the leftover yarns used in these socks both before and after knitting so that I can have a good idea how much I used of what, and which other leftover sock yarns might be combined into future Crazy Conservative socks.

If I'm crazy enough.

In other news, DD and I took a trip to the Gold Country in the foothills of California over President's Day weekend. We toured a working gold mine and two caves, one of which we took a 165-foot rappel down into. Big fun! Both she and I are experienced rappelers, but even the inexperienced rappelers had a great time and it is set up to be pretty much idiot-proof, as it should be. We also continued on for the crawling part of the tour, and once back above ground we did the zip line. I got back in touch with my outdoorsy, adventurous side, which has been somewhat dormant of late. If you're ever in that part of the world, I recommend this. Check out their website.

Alas, on our one day of skiing I fell clumsily and twisted my left knee pretty badly. I'm seeing the orthopodic guy Thursday. Hopefully a little PT and maybe a brace will be all that is in store for me. I tore my right ACL skiing about 6 years ago and have managed to avoid surgery for that so far, and hopefully won't need it for this tear/sprain/whatever.

The knee slowed me down only a little bit at Stitches West, but that's a story for another day.

How to Knit a Single-strand Flow Motion Sock

At last, I have a decent portrait with a blocker and everything.

Maia suggested I should write up my mods for the single-stranded Flow Motion socks, and I am incredibly flattered by this. Maia is a fiber goddess, being spinner / dyer / knitter / designer and possibly weaver (have I missed anything, Maia?) all in one. Me, I just knit.

Since flattery of this type will clearly motivate me, I will now explain my mods. If you do not happen to be interested in knitting a single-strand Flow Motion Sock, you might want to just look at the pic and skip the numbers-blah-adding-blah-charts-blah-blah-blah below. I won't be offended.

First of all, the original pattern by Cat Bordhi (to be found in Vogue Knitting's Ultimate Sock Book as well as in Vogue Knitting, Fall '06 I believe) is written to be knit with two strands of yarn (Trekking sock yarn is the recommended yarn) held together and knit on size 6 (4mm) needles. Clearly this will result in a thicker sock than if knit with a single strand of yarn in the usual way.

I wanted to knit these socks, but with a single strand. What to do? I was somewhat at a loss until New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One came out. The Flow Motion sock is based on the "Upstream" sock architecture in that book.

I used the Upstream Master Pattern and cast on to knit from the toe up, per the instructions (using a pretty ordinary toe instead of one of Cat's), using a 2.25 mm KnitPicks circular needle. My yarn, by the way, is Dream in Color Smooshy sock yarn. The gauge I was getting was 8 SPI. For my 9" foot length and 8" foot circumference, the formula in the book called for me to increase to 56 stitches around and then to knit to 4.33 inches before doing the instep increases.

Now, the chart for the instep increases is 26 rows, increasing from 2 to 33 stitches, meaning it has 31 increases. This was not going to give me enough stitches to match Cat's Master Numbers for me for this sock, and I knew that at the smaller gauge there would not be enough rows to give me the right length. I needed to knit more rows, and to increase from 56 stitches to -- well, there was a little confusion at this point.

The chart would have me increase to 96 stitches, but at the same time said that "the arch expansion total is nearly always equal to the midfoot total plus half the midfoot total", which would give me 84. I went with 93, somewhere in the middle but much closer to the chart number. An even larger number might have worked a bit better -- the socks are a little hard to get on, but they fit alright once on.

So, additional rows and increases needed to be worked to get the midfoot stitch total (56) plus the increases from the chart (31) to the desired stitch count (93). Six additional increased stitches, in fact, in my example.

I can't really explain how I decided how many additional rows to do. Guesswork would probably be the most honest answer. I worked 6 extra rounds (a few more would have been better), increasing two stitches every other row, before beginning the chart. These extra increases began on either side of the center instep stitches, and moved outwards as I went. Place markers on either side of the 2 center instep stitches and increase in the stitch before the first marker and the stitch after the second marker, every other round. I used Cat's LLinc and LRinc increases. YO's would be interesting, too.

ETA: I realize now that's not how I actually did it. It would work, with increases spreading out of the two center stitches. What I did, though, to echo the "V" of the instep chart, was make a right-leaning increase in the first stitch after the first marker, and a left-leaning increase in the stitch before the second marker. That way, the markers keep moving outward as you make the increases.

After the last plain round I began the instep chart. Move the two markers back to either side of the center two instep stitches, and then begin.

Once my instep chart was done, I worked a plain heel using Cat's instructions, decreasing per the toe-up heel decreases until I had 64 stitches. The leg chart is 16 stitches across and the original pattern calls for 3 repeats around the leg (48 stitches around the leg). Four repeats and 64 stitches around were appropriate for this size sock in this gauge.

I have two important tips for you here --

The first is that there is an error in the leg chart (the written instructions for the leg pattern are correct as written). In row 5, stitch 10 is shown in the chart as a plain knit stitch, but it should be a YO.

The second is -- where do you start the leg chart? The instructions only make sense if you are knitting the original pattern.

After careful reading and scratching my head and thinking about where the beginning of the chart would have fallen if I were knitting the original pattern, I came up with the answer.

You begin the leg chart on top of the 5th stitch of the last row of the instep chart.

That's a pretty bland statement there, isn't it? But at the time it seemed like a major breakthrough.

Knit (plain knit stitches in the plain ones, KBL if the stitch below is KBL) until you have knit the 4th stitch of the last row of the instep chart, then place a marker and begin the first repeat of the leg chart.

I changed to a 2.5 mm needle when I began the leg, since the instep and heel were a little tight -- I sure didn't want the lower leg to be so tight I wouldn't be able to get the socks on.

And now you're home free, nearly. Work the leg chart four times around, four times, do the top edging of your choice (I chose a plain picot edge instead of the seed stitch picot edge in the pattern), et voila.

And in the timeless tradition of completely pointless instructions everywhere, let me add: Make second sock.

Other pics of my socks in my previous posts are here.

Questions? Bouquets? Rotten tomatoes? Let me know.

Socks for Nicole

You know how sometimes you give hand-knitted socks to someone and they're ho-hum about them? Or how someone might scorn the idea of hand-knitting socks at all, since you can buy them at the store?

Not Nicole.

Nicole is my neighbor and good friend. Her son is in DD's grade at school. I wish I saw her more often. We are very comfortable together and always enjoy one another's company. Once in a while one of us will call up the other and say, "we need to go for a walk right now because there is something one of us simply needs to vent about, or else explode.

I happened to mention to Nicole that I am hooked on knitting socks. That I knit more socks than I can wear myself. She promptly said, "I'd like some". In a way that I quite liked.

So after I finished my then-sock-in-progress, I rounded up all my sock yarn and most of my sock knitting books (scary, that), and all of my own hand-knitted socks, and headed over to her place (mine being full of construction dust and debris and all).

She seemed to quite understand about having so much yarn and so many books. Of course, I was offering to knit her socks, but I really think she gets it -- that if you have a hobby, of course there are shows (I told her about Stitches), and books and supplies that you collect.

She selected a yarn that I was no longer crazy about, and a simple ribbed sock was what she wanted. Perfect! I didn't steer her to these choices -- but she's not crazy about purple, so my nice hand-dyed purple yarns didn't appeal to her, and while she seemed to understand that I get all excited about things like Cat Bordhi's new sock book, she just wanted ribbed socks.



Admire our matchiness, please.




Darn! Try as we might, we can't both fit on the scanner at once.

I can't find my home-made sock blocker. The disorder caused by our remodel is staggering. I've ordered inexpensive sock "stretchers", but they're not here yet.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

After writing the portion above, I had to attend to some (ahem) actual work for awhile, woe is me. Meantime, the mail came! With my sock blockers!



Yay, I have a proper portrait now! The other sock is jealous!

These sock blockers are, no kidding, $1.88, plus shipping. Go, get them here, now. With shipping, they came to $7.17. These are size small and are maybe 1/2 inch longer than my women's 7.5 foot, but that's just fine. I can't remember now where I first saw the link to these -- whoever it was that posted it, thank you, thank you! If you click the link and click on the product picture, you can see a picture without the socks on them.

They are plastic and very similar to the lovely wooden ones you see many places, but thinner. They might need just a little bit of smoothing out the edges, but otherwise they're just right for me. I know they're not as pretty, but I never could justify spending the money for the lovely wooden ones. And if DH makes me lovely wooden ones using these as a template -- well, that would be just fine and dandy, too. After the remodel is done.

OK, the details:

Lost the ball bands. Some nice self-striping and self-patterning sock yarn with nylon content.
60 stitches around on size 2.5 mm KnitPicks circ, magic loop-style. Plain heel, basic toe. 2x2 ribbing on leg and instep. Long-tail cast-on.

ETA: The link has now been fixed. Give the sock blockers a try, what have you got to lose?

Second Flow Motion Sock -- now with markers!

I'm making progress on my second Flow Motion sock. The second one is going to fit better, I think -- my half-baked plan, rather than re-knitting the heel, instep and leg of the first sock, is to try wearing it on my left foot (which is a tad smaller), and the second sock on the right. Must mark them somehow. If all else fails, well, if I have to re-knit it, now I can use these fab stitch markers I made:





Stitch marker in action!

This was a very inexpensive project and a lot of fun. I used this tutorial and this one. Apparently the "tiger tail" referred to in David Reidy's tute is the same as the more generic "nylon coated beading wire" referred to in the other tute. JoAnn's had "Beadalon" brand "bead stringing wire", and that is what I used. Bead wire, some crimp beads, hematite beads and shell (?) beads, all very inexpensive at Michael's and JoAnn's, and very simple to put together. Here it is in a nutshell -- cut some bead wire, double it, put on a crimp bead, put on decorative beads, put on another crimp bead, use pliers to crimp the crimp beads, trim ends, and voila.

I like having no jump rings (which can catch on the yarn) and I like that the bead wire is so thin, so no gapping is created by the marker. The weight of these is nice, they hang nicely without flopping around and are not in the way. And if you are like David Reidy and into binary code, you can make bead markers with messages!



This one was a little more complex. I was trying to combine the bead-wire type stitch marker with the idea from this tute. The idea was to have a two-row row counter (what?! sometimes I have trouble counting to two).



The top part was double-ended, with a loop at each end for the knitting needle, and only 3 small beads. The bottom, intact part, is made with a head pin and some beads. It was harder than I thought to make the loop at the top. Yes, I am a klutz.

The general idea is that as you're going along making toe increases / decreases or gusset increases / decreases, when you get to this marker you slip it by putting your right-hand needle into the other loop, not the one your left needle is in. This should make it easier even for me to keep track of whether I'm on an increase / decrease row, or a plain row. OK, I should be able to read my knitting and not need a row counter, but sometimes I mess it up anyway. Plus I just like this idea.

The problem, I think, was that one of the crimp beads broke for some reason. Must try again. If it works, I can make row counter markers for various projects, with the number of rows for the pattern repeat reflected in the stitch marker. Whee!

ETA: I don't know why I didn't just fix that broker marker before posting, because it took all of about 10 seconds.



ETA - there is now an updated link above to the row counter tutorial.

Single-Stranded Flow Motion Sock

I have wanted to make Cat Bordhi's Flow Motion Sock since I first saw it in Vogue Knitting (Fall '06, if I recall right). It's also in Vogue Knitting's "Ultimate Sock Book".

But I didn't want to make it holding two strands of yarn held together, as the pattern calls for. I didn't really care to have a lacy sock in a heavy weight.

So recently I set about figuring out how to knit the same sock with a single strand of yarn. I used the Dream in Color Smooshy that I won as a prize a while back. Yum.

After a good deal of knitting, figuring and head-scratching, this is what resulted:



Sorry for the crummy pic, it's raining, raining, raining, and I have yet to build a light box or anything so fancy. The house is still very much in a construction mode and there is no room. DD, DH and I are all sleeping in the living room, and have been for several months. I can't decide which it reminds me of more, The Waltons or Little House on the Prairie. At least we still have our regular beds, and a working kitchen.

BTW, there is an error in the leg chart. Row 5, stitch 10, should be a YO. It's correct in the written instructions, and yet I first turned to knitblogs to solve my puzzlement over the chart error. Instead of just reading the darn instructions. Didn't even occur to me at first.

Naturally this pic, taken at my desk, doesn't do justice to the yarn. I love, love, love this yarn. It seems to have color changes / variations that would never pool or flash. Just lovely variation.

And here's a pic with flash, showing the stitch pattern a bit.



At first I didn't like the way the fabric was coming out -- all those twisted stitches. But it grew on me. I've cast on for the second sock.

Mods: Single stranded, knit on 2.25 mm circ Magic Loop style through the first repeat of the leg chart, then on 2.5 mm circ. Plain picot edge instead of seed stitch. 56 stitches around the foot, 64 stitches around the leg, with necessary fudging of heel turn and flap. I began the increases as indicated in the "Upstream" master pattern in New Pathways for Sock Knitters (this turned out a tiny bit too short for this particular pattern, which I have decided I can live with) and increased 3 times (6 stitches, 9 rows) before beginning the instep chart.

Then after the heel was done I had to match up the leg chart with the instep chart. This would ordinarily be clear if you were knitting the sock as written, but of course since I was throwing in 4 instead of 3 repeats of the leg chart, I had to work it out for myself.

I like this sock, but I don't think another pair is in my future. Knitting all of those twisted stitches in the charts is too troublesome. I had to really concentrate on loosening up my knitting, which no doubt would be a good thing in general.

I did very few holiday knits after the craziness I put myself through last year, and got through the holidays relatively sanely, for me. It helped that for me, my Mom and my brothers, we decided not to exchange gifts, but to spend a morning helping out at a center for the needy elderly. Before you think too highly of me for this, remember that I traded off a couple of hours of charity work for hours and hours of shopping and wrapping and returns. I think it was a heck of a deal, and we all had a nice time.

And we got very lovely knitted gifts from my buddy Liz --



Tiny sweater ornaments for the three of us with our first initials! They were perfect for the tiny tree we had this year, and will be great for years to come! Thanks, Liz!

Monkey Business

And here's my first Monkey Sock:



I love this sock. Yet I'm sending it out into the world as a gift, to someone who I have no idea whether she will appreciate it. I'll never know, either, so all I can do is hope. At least I won't have the disappointment of knowing that she doesn't.

With its mate, of course, as soon as it's done. I've knit the heel and done the gusset decreases, so it's not too long now.

I loved this so much that I begged J.L. Yarnworks, the source of this yarn, to make me some more, and she graciously agreed to try to duplicate it, which I realize could be a tricky business with hand-dyed yarn. Yay! Thanks, Jackie! I love the subtle variegation of this yarn, which doesn't show up so well in the scans, the somewhat muted colors, and the twist, which is just right.

Pop quiz, hotshot -- what makes this Monkey different from most other monkeys? What is the "twist", so to speak?

Anybody?

Extra geeky points for recognizing the quote above.

And by the way -- there was indeed Tofurky at Thanksgiving, but no one even suggested that I should have any. Which is good, because I was prepared to say that it was against my religion.

Hey, hey, it's the Monkeys!

The Monkees were a fab phenom when I was in 6th grade. Yes, I'm older than dirt. A classmate, still unsure of what to do with her zeal for activism, tried to get a petition going to get the Monkees to come and play at our K-8 school. As if. She soon found better applications for her activist energies, and lived on a Kibbutz in Israel for a while. But I digress.



A different kind of Monkey.

I am one of the only living knitters never to have knit a pair of Monkey socks, but that is soon to be rectified. For the picot edge, a technique new to me, I used Claudia's blog post, January One's blog post, and Purlwise's blog post (but without the provisional cast-on), to help me learn this. I think I like it.

I love the Monkey pattern. It's now been memorized, for stress-free Turkey Day knitting while at my Mom's. So that hopefully I won't scream at anybody while there.

I just hope that there will be no Tofurkey. People, I've had Tofurkey. Once was more than enough.

May all of you who celebrate the holiday have a wonderful Thanksgiving, full of the foods and people that you love best.

Sonnet -- finally, some progress

I started this project over one year ago, and one of the reasons that I started blogging was to participate in a Sonnet KAL.

Alas, momentum did not yet get me to complete this project, but I did recently buy buttons for it at the TNNA show in Oakland this fall, and, more importantly, I have actually again begun to knit on it.



Here is the body, nearly done.

The pattern is Sonnet, on Knitty.com. The body is knit sideways in one piece, in garter stitch with bands of box stitch.

My first blog post ever, from May 6, 2006, shows the completed version of a Haiku, the child's version of Sonnet, that I made for my niece. Hence my blogname, Auntie Ann.

The buttons are not sewn on yet, nor have I made the buttonholes. I was persuaded that the sweater would look best with just two buttons toward the top, but I might finish the body and then wear it with a shawl clasp until I can figure out exactly where I want the buttons. Then I can put in afterthought buttonholes.



Here's a close-up of one of the two buttons I purchased for this sweater at TNNA. It is a Dichroic glass button, from Geddes Studio, Orangevale, CA. Luckily, I had some of the yarn for this sweater with me for a class. The woman staffing the booth has a great eye for color, let me tell you.

I am determined not to cast on any other projects (except socks -- must have socks on the needles for Thanksgiving with the family) until this is done. Today I will try to seam the shoulders and actually try on the body. Hopefully this will spur me on, rather than kill the momentum again. We shall see.

Moebius FO

I finished what may be the last of my holiday knits, since not everyone in the family is getting knitted gifts this year. It is by request, a short Moebius scarf:



Last year I made this Moebius scarf for my step-mom. This year her daughter requested one just like it.



Here's the stitch pattern, and a slightly better representation of the color. The yarn has blue and green plies twisted together, which I think gives a nice effect. I may make myself one like this from the "safety" skein, which I didn't need to touch.

I haven't blocked this yet. Must haul out the ironing board to do that (the twist dangles beneath, since a Moebius can't lie flat without being folded).

Just like the other one, it's based on Cat Bordhi's Arrow Lace Pathways scarf from her "Treasury of Magical Knitting", but I made it a bit short (so's the intended recipient) and left off the "fingers" that she uses in the bind-off. This was a very fast and fun knit, using less than one hank of Cascade 220.

And I had another FO over the weekend, the second Falling Water Sock. No second sock picture, sorry. Just look at the first one and cross your eyes to see the whole pair.

Look ma, I can do entrelac!

Well, what do you know, this wasn't quite as hard as I thought feared it would be:




OK, it's a little wonky, but hopefully blocking will sort it out.

The pattern is Alison's Entrelac Scarf, as modified by the KnittyOtter (with many thanks to Alison and KnittyOtter, and to Cookie, who pointed me to the pattern and tutorial). Also, I began with garter stitch squares instead of st stitch triangles, per a pattern in Knitted Shawls, Stoles, and Scarves by Nancie Wiseman. Maybe seed stitch next time, I'm not sure yet. Possibly there will also be tassels.

The yarn is Paton's Soy Wool Stripes, color Natural Plum, knit on US 9's. I have four skeins, so hopefully I can make a nice-sized scarf. I'm not sure yet who this is for, I was bitten by the entrelac bug for some reason (something going around?) and had to learn how. Actually, I think it was the other way around -- I read how so many people loved this yarn, bought a couple of skeins, and then searched for patterns to go with it. It seemed perfect for an entrelac scarf. Had to run back for 2 more skeins, it sounded as though the original 2 would not be enough.

This is so much fun, I have been distracted from two other WIP's that are so close to being done. One is the second Falling Water sock (just a few toe decrease rounds left), and the other is finishing the bind-off on yet another Moebius scarf (which is nothing but a big blob while it is still on the needles). Hopefully those will both be finished very soon.

Four Mitts

At our SnB last Friday night, friend and fellow stitcher Patty took these pix of M and me and our Stulpen. I have to say that neither M nor I are looking our best (well, I'm not, in any event), but the mitts look darn good, if I do say so myself.





Look, my 13-yo daughter will still hug me for a pic!

Stulpen

These are my favorite FOs lately:



Close-up of the cables:



Our house is freezing (well, not compared to what it could be in other parts of the country, I suppose, but still -- right now it's reading 50 degrees here in my office). Our remodel has progressed to the point where we have no heat. The furnace is still here, and probably works, too, but there is no ductwork. The old ductwork was all rusted and falling apart under the house, so it is gone (and good riddance) and the new ductwork will go in the attic. After the roof is done. Priorities, ya know.

I work at home, and I use the computer a lot. So I knew it was time for some fingerless mitts. All other WIPs and holiday knits were abandoned for this cause.

A while back I had seen this post on Criminy Jickets' blog, and I really liked the pattern Dave chose. The pattern is found here (scroll down for the English version).

(Note: I believe the key to the chart is not quite right -- switch the instructions for the left 4-stitch cable and right 4-stitch cable and you should be alright. If you're good at reading cable charts, just ignore the key completely. [ETA: by "4-stitch cable" I mean the ones that are all knit stitches; the crosses that are knit/purl combos all seem correct.] [Further ETA: I have been in contact with Petra on Ravelry and she is going to fix the chart key. Yay! Thanks, Petra!]

As soon as I had finished the left mitt, DD declared that she wanted some, so as soon as I finished mine I cast on for hers. Once in a while I lend mine to her (when she practices her flute, or when I'm doing the dishes), but clearly we need to each have a set.

Mine are made from Lana Grossa Merino 2000 (DK), rather than the yarn called for (6-ply sock yarn, which I believe is about sport weight), so they are very plush and warm. The colorway? It glories in the name "483". They don't normally appear quite so bright as in the pictures.

DD's will be "Lane Borgosesia by Zegna Baruffa". Why yes, it is Italian yarn, how did you know? Hers are merino and silk (yum), mine are merino. Her yarn is a bit finer and lilac or pale purple in color.

Mods: I used DK weight yarn on US 2 (3.0 mm) needles, and I ribbed the thumbs instead of doing them in stockinette per the pattern. The increases for the thumbs were done in the center of the gusset instead of at the edges, so that the ribs could make "vee's" in the center of the gusset. I'm not explaining this very well, but here's a picture:



The gusset increases with the ribbing did not come out completely as I would have wished, but they'll do.

Rant warning -- so many people speak of the thumb technique used in Fetching on Knitty as a "gusset". People, you may like that thumb, to each his or her own, but a gusset it ain't. As it happens, I don't care for it and wanted an actual gusset in mine. End of rant.

Another mod I am making in DD's -- the wrists don't need to be quite as long as specified, IMO, which is 30 rounds before the beginning of the chart. I am making DD's to be 20 rounds. The cables at the wrist are functional, too -- they pull the mitt in a bit at the wrist, to snug it up and keep out that chill.

Both yarns, for my and DD's Stulpen, were snatched up by me in the SnB yarn swap a while back, and I believe were contributed by Carin. Thanks, Carin!

The Coriolis Effect

I finished my Coriolis socks (from New Pathways for Sock Knitters, Book One) a little while ago, and have worn them a couple of times, too. I guess it's about time I blogged about them.

Per the pattern, I made these lovely Whirlpool toes:



I think I still want to do a pair where the toes whirl in opposite directions, but we'll see. Could be too dizzying for me, what with the Coriolis effect, and all.



The colors in the yarn don't display the spiral effect to full advantage, but these socks fit very well and are very wearable -- I expect to get a lot of use out of these.

I didn't use any of the very fancy sock bind-offs that Cat Bordhi had in her book, opting instead for a basic 2x2 rib and EZ's sewn bind-off. The spiral does turn into one of the ribs, but unfortunately I don't have a pic of that.

Lisa was done with this yarn and gave it to me while I was in Minneapolis in August. Thanks for the yarn, Lisa!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . .

When we left our story, I was expecting some prize yarn that I won in connection with the Red Scarf Project. Yay!

The yarn was generously donated by Ronni, who spoiled me a little in addition to sending me the yarn. This is why I don't do swaps, people -- I just can't keep up!

Me, I'd have just stuck the yarn in the box and figured I was lucky just to make it to the post office with it. Ronni wrapped it up in very pretty tissue paper, with a yarn bow, of course, and even a card:





And what's that tied in the bow?

It's a beautiful stitch marker that she made especially to go with the yarn:



And the yarn itself is so lovely:



It's Dream in Color Smooshy, colorway "Wisterious". I'm looking forward to knitting with this, let me tell you.

Thanks again, Norma and Ronni!

More Purple Sock Yarn!

I mentioned in my last post that I won purple sock yarn. It's on its way to me even as we speak.



I stole this pic right off of Norma's blog.

I feel so lucky!!!

I've got a Cool Sock Project Bag!

I've been meaning to blog about this ever since it arrived, and here it finally is:



Darn it, my pic came out a bit blurry. Let's see if my pic of the bottom is any better.



OK, that's a little better.

It's reversible, too, but I was a bit too rushed to dump everything out to take a pic of the other side. You can see a glimpse of the inside fabric in the first pic, and the bottom of the inside is the same as the main outside fabric.

These are by Knitting Ewe on the Go, and you can order one here, although I see on her site that she is taking a little break after pumping out a ton of these bags. She made these in conjunction with Sockapalooza 4, but having actually participated in Sockapalooza 4 is entirely optional. I didn't, as it happens.

Knitting Ewe gave great service! First of all, everyone gets to pick all four fabrics that go into these bags, and she has a great selection, all either sock monkey themed or colorful dots.

Then, when my bag didn't come out to her satisfaction, she ripped it all out and did it over, and emailed me to explain the delay and give me the option of picking a different fabric (she had to get some more in of one of the ones I had selected).

I love this -- she really cares about the quality of the bags she's pumping out for $15, and communicated with me every step of the way if there were any hitches at all. Go, Knitting Ewe!

What's in the sock project bag, you ask? Why, my current sock project, of course. This is a great bag to carry what you need for your sock project and is still small enough to go everywhere with you.



This is my second Coriolis Sock. If you're following along at home, in the book this is actually Sock 1. Yes, I knit Sock 2 first. I had some delusion that the direction of the whirlpool toe would match Sock 2 better, and that when I knit Sock 1, I would figure out how to reverse the whirlpool. That plan is out the window. But in this pic you can actually see the beginning of the spiral, which goes in the opposite direction of the other sock. I love it.

What else? Well, my knitting notions that I need for a sock, of course. To which I have recently added these:



They are from J.L. Yarnworks. Love them! I have yet to actually use them, though.

Cat Bordhi's new sock book has started a craze for lettered stitch markers, since she makes liberal use of stitch markers that she refers to by letter in her instructions. Now, it has been pointed out to me that a Sharpie and some openable stitch markers are all you really need. Or you could hang some cardstock on your regular stitch markers using some yarn. All this is quite true. In fact, I made my first Coriolis Sock (which is actually Sock 2, if you'll remember) without benefit of lettering my stitch markers at all, because I didn't find it necessary. But these are purdy, and I gave in.

While I was there, I happened across this:




She even winds it up for you if you just ask. At first I mis-read the gauge specs as "7.9", which freaked me out because it was so darn precise. "7-9", that I can deal with.

Purple sock yarn. Somehow a lot of it is ending up in this house. Couldn't be me.

I even won some purple sock yarn at Now Norma Knits from a drawing she had for people who donated to the Red Scarf Fund for Foster Youth. Yep, purple sock yarn. Thank you, Norma! Thank you, Ronni, for donating the yarn.

So you see, it isn't me. Really.

Proud Knitting Scout

I was listening to Cast On tonight and knitting. This combo has to rate as one of my all-time fave pastimes. I was listening to Episode 54, being one behind the most current one.

I had seen and coveted the Cast On Knitting Scout badges, but hadn't yet swiped any. I wasn't sure I had really met very many of the requirements.

Then, during the podcast, Brenda commented that she had seen someone who had earned the “I Will Crush You With My Math Prowess” Badge ("The recipient has applied the principles of higher mathematics to knitting including, but not limited to hyperbolic planes, Fibonacci sequences, Klein bottles, Moebius strips, fractals and Flying Spaghetti Monster hats.") by reverse engineering and knitting a Klein Bottle hat.

Well, heck, I've done that.

And so I hereby proudly award to (ahem) myself the coveted "I will Crush You With My Math Prowess" Knitting Scout Badge:



Of course, there is also the Proselytize Knitting badge, a requirement for all Knitting Scouts:



("A requirement for all Knitting Scouts, the recipient must do his or her bit to present knitting in a positive light, whilst at the same time avoiding all references to “hipness”, grandmothers, and yoga.")

I think this blog qualifies, myself. Also my attempts (futile, so far) to teach my fellow SnB'ers the joys of sock knitting. Two of them begged me to teach them, then showed up without any of the stuff I told them they would need. Well, maybe next month.

This one, I think, needs no description or explanation.



Pass the wine, please.

A Whole Lotta Nothin'

I took pix of my Coriolis-sock-in-progress, and they came out awful. I didn't even want to put them on the blog, they are so bad.

However! I have nothin' else to show you, so I am going to make you suffer through these:







My model was DD, who was not the most cooperative. I usually get better pix with no flash, but as you can see these uploaded way too dark. I swear they looked good in the camera and on my hard drive.

And I hurt my wrist. Not on the computer this time, but knitting. So I took a break from knitting for a couple of days, plus work has been really, really busy, ditto my fund-raising campaign for the school, DD has started playing soccer, making me a soccer mom, and I am supposed to be getting the GS troop cranked up for the year. Whine, whine, whine.

I have promised myself that next school year? Zero school volunteer work. Something's gotta give.

Crap-tastic photos notwithstanding, I really like this sock. Interesting to knit, and it fits well, too. When I do the other sock, it will spiral the other way. I know you can barely even see the spiral in these photos, but bear with me. There is a spiral, from right to left across the top of the foot. There is something I find very pleasing about the reverse spiraling planned for the other sock, despite the fact that I usually like my socks to match, and couldn't be bothered to, for instance, reverse the cabling on my socks so that one goes one way, the other goes the other way.

And Mom is about to buy mattress #4. Mattress #3 was determined by the factory inspector to be defective, so she gets a store credit! Whee! I have encouraged her to run down to the store today. Well, she did call me up to whine about mattress #3, after all. Of course, I am only slightly motivated that if she orders a new mattress before the weekend, I won't have to go with her.

What does a knitter use for packing material?

Wool, apparently.



DD left a pair of flip-flops behind on our visit to Lisa and her family. Lisa kindly shipped them back, in this box.

Now we can play with some felting!

Falling Water Socks

Apparently I'm in love with Stansfield 196.

On my recent vacation, I knit a sock using the chart for that pattern from "More Sensational Knitted Socks". It's a very pretty pattern, easily done and easily memorized. There is no cabling, just simple increases and decreases.



And here it is, in Trekking XXL, color "77". Love the color name, don't you?

It's for someone with feet a bit smaller than mine, hence the petite leg on this sock.

I kept thinking it looked familiar. I had long wanted to knit the River Rapids Socks, a free pattern by Sockbug, but hadn't gotten around to it. (BTW, that's a link to the main site and not the pattern itself since I don't like to link to PDF's, it causes havoc with my browser when I click on a link to a PDF, and yet, do I ever learn?).

Guess what? Sockbug's pattern uses the exact same chart.

Anyway, I took a scarf project along for travel knitting, also. It's the Falling Water scarf, free on this blog. My friend Lisa saw me musing about it on my blog, knit it, entered it in the Minnesota State Fair, and won a ribbon and a small (very small) cash prize to boot. I would demand a finder's fee for having the idea, if not for the fact that Lisa just put up with me put me up, along with DD, for a week. And the fact that the cash prize is (ahem) $2, or so she tells me.



Here's the wonky, unblocked beginning of my version.

Isn't that a lovely stitch pattern? I started mine on the plane home using the lovely purple wool / tencel sock yarn I got at Stitches West, and it's partly done (haven't decided exactly how long to make it yet), and -- wait just a gol-dern minute!

You guessed it! Stansfield 196 strikes yet again. Imagine my surprise on the plane home to unfold the scarf pattern I had printed out so long ago and look at the chart, only to immediately put it away again, having memorized that chart a short way down the leg of the sock.

Now, a question for you all -- is Trekking thinner than other sock yarn? I don't notice that the yardage is significantly more than other sock yarns, at least per the label, but on the first plane ride, after grafting the second toe on the Sunday Socks, I accidentally cast on one entire extra pattern repeat on the cuff of this sock.

And didn't notice it until I had knit the entire leg and heel flap and was ready to pick up the gusset stitches. Because apparently I am even more of a moron than I had previously thought possible. But somehow the sock is the right size, and I measured my gauge at about 10 freakin' spi, which is the only way I could be such a maroon and still have the sock come out the right size.

The knitting goddess was smiling on me when I knit this sock, that's for sure. I just hope she smiles on me again when I go to knit sock #2, because I have taken what notes I can and set it aside for now, being completely captivated by Cat Bordhi's new book.

I'm off to the ball game tonight with Coriolis sock in hand, hopefully I will put up a pic over the weekend.

Sunday Socks

Here's the second Sunday Sock: