Acorn Stash Socks, FO'd!!

Done! I was not actually so wild about the Oregon Red Clover Honey STR -- I was expecting something very different based on the pictures from the Blue Moon site, more like separated red and yellow.



But, I do love how acorn-y the color is, and the gradation in color is just lovely. This colorway also looks awesome in Twisted, if the various photos on Ravelry are to be believed.

These were probably the hardest socks I've knit, mostly because of the insane number of stitches-into-one that forms the tops of the acorns. These became much more do-able when I realized that what mattered was pulling each new stitch out as far as I could, rather than starting with a really big stitch to make the other stitches into. That was a very good lesson.

And even though the stitch count varies from row to row, it's not actually that difficult to keep track of. I was paying tons of attention anyway, so if I needed a stitch that wasn't there, I knew about it right away.

The pattern was great, well-written and clear and way more complicated than anything I could come up with on my own. Oh, but if you're going to do all the repeats that are called for with STR, you'll need more than one skein. I think I did five cuff repeats, and didn't have enough left over for any more, but the socks are plenty tall.

And now I have spent way too much time playing on the internets and must get back to packing.

Can't blog.

Acorning.

Birthday Yarn

Woot!

Hedwig!!

Here are the next socks. Meet the new socks, same as the old socks. Insofar as it's from an indie dyer (Sunshine Yarns) and the yarn overs, they are plotting against me.

I spend a lot of mental energy on pairing socks with patterns, which is especially given my penchant for colorways with serious internal contrast. But sometimes I'll quickly and easily become fixated on one decision and that'll be it. The yarn that became the crosshatch lace socks could have been 15 other things, but this one was going to be waving lace from the beginning. My Smooshy Giant Peach Charades were the same way.

Anyhow, these are flowing nicely and I'm liking the feel of the yarn (Sunshine Yarns Twist). It's almost cottony or papery or something. If it wears well, I will definitely use it again.

effo: Crosshatch Lace Socks (24 hours early, too)

I've got to say, if I saw a thread on Ravelry dedicated to laughing at the accidentally-phallic nature of one of my designs, I'd be sick with embarrassment. Oh, Ravelry.



Aaaanyway, here are some socks! I have apparently taken it upon myself to knit socks that are bulletproof, and with these suckers got 9.5 spi (on the stockinette soles). On the one hand they probably won't wear through anytime soon, and on the other hand they might because that's some serious negative ease. They fit, they're fine, really, but I need to chill the hell out with the knitting.



I really like the crosshatch lace pattern, although I'll cry if I recall the number of times that I missed a yo or some other kind of stitch count screwery and had to tink. Crazy tension + time constraints + general distractability = serious knitting frustration. Oh, and I don't know wtf happened with the toes, but for the feet I had 36 on the top and 30 on the bottom (as a result of a serious lack of planning going into the heel). On the first sock I actually remembered to put stitches from the top onto the bottom so the toe would be even (but ended up fudging something anyway, I know not what), and on the second I didn't and was at the end with a whopping six stitches more on top than on the bottom. Over sixty that's not so many stitches; over twelve it really, really is. I'd love to say that I frogged the toe and fixed it from the beginning, but it just wasn't that kind of week.

Onward through the sock stash! Up next: Sunshine Yarns in Hedwig, Waving Lace. I cast on tonight. And it's 11:30, zomg, what happened to the evening?

ETA: Flickr, why must you default to the Original size? Who uses the original size? Sorry if I 'sploded your-all's feed reader things.

Mostly words this time

Okay, all words. I have nothing picture-worthy, sorry to say. Or maybe they're picture-worthy but I just don't feel like taking their pictures, *I* don't know, hell, blah blah blah.

The crosshatch lace socks are coming along. I bit the shortrow-heel bullet and got the second one done (in a not-quite-identical way to the first) on Sunday and am making good progress on the feet. I'm realizing that I should have made the cuffs about an inch longer than I did, even though six cuff repeats felt like a lot.

My evenings are once again freed up, so progress should pick up. I've been foolishly splitting time over three different pairs of socks, but am now all crosshatch all the time until they're done.

Wow, that came out a lot more boring than I'd intended. More vim and just... more, tomorrow.

if I knit any tighter, my elbow will burst into flames

ITEM 1: Summer of Socks Summer Socks.



These are the Summer of Socks 08 socks in Maizy, colorway Hibiscus. The Maizy was interesting to work with -- it's not wool, so it should be cooler than wool (one would think) in the summers, but to me it ended up actually seeming kind of bulky. Or at least not as relenting as wool is. Does that make sense? I don't know.

At any rate, these socks were kind of a disaster. The cuff is downright baggy, although it wouldn't be if they would stay up, stretched all the way, but they're just not going to do that. I added a crochet chain right above the heel, which minimized bagging when the cuff is slouching down a little, but which ends up buckling the cuff when it's slouching altogether. Which in the grand scheme of things doesn't really matter much. And on top of all of this, they're incredibly, incredibly biased. So. I'll probably wear them, but blegh.

ITEM 2: Crosshatch Lace Socks.



I've been looking forward to these ever since I decided to put this yarn with this pattern, and I love how they're coming out so far. The yarn is Sunnyside Ellen (on Etsy) Louet Gems Fingering Something or Whatever, in the Kaleidoscope colorway. They're looking different than I'd imagined, because I was thinking that there was much more of the lighter minty color, but this is good too.

Hooray for Crochet! Partly because that rhymes, and partly because it's awesome.

So me and a couple buddies learned how to crochet yesterday. I've just gone through the rigmarole of photographing and posting my socks, so I won't show you my O HAI IM A NOOB swatch, but it is cute and awesome and I am proud of it. I also went on a queueing amigurumi projects tear this morning, and you really really should check out the projects tagged with "amigurumi" on Ravelry. WOW.

I seem to have added yet another job to the schedule, which blows my plans for Summer of Socks all to hell*. I'll keep my goal of finishing at least (ahahaha) a pair of socks every two weeks, to be eligible for those drawings, because winning sockyarn represents about 70% of my sockyarn acquiring possibilities these days. But finishing a pair every two weeks just got more difficult.

Here is Maizy in Wendy's Summer of Socks 08 pattern:



Going good so far, but the ssks are annoyingly easy to split the yarn on.

Did I show you these?



Monkabiddies, I love them.

Flickr embed!



Did it work? These are the Earl Grays that it took me forever and ever to finish. And of course I way overshot the second toe and could have finished them much sooner if I avoided knitting and then frogging an extra inch and a half. Other seems to like them and doesn't seem to have keeled over from an allergic reaction to the wool content: double win!

And finally, in contrast, the fastest socks ever:



Sportweight. My secret weapon in SoS 08. Now if I can avoid finishing the two socks 10 months apart, we'll be in good shape.

*but it does wonders for my "eating and being in graduate school at the same time" plans, which I will grudgingly admit may take precedence here

exacerbating sleep deprivation to remedy yarn and sock deprivation

I have been in distant lands, exploring the deep mysteries of the evening shift and conquering WIPs at every turn, except for my sweater's sleeves, which turned out to be completely the wrong shape and it may have had a lot in fact to do with the fact that I put the word "each" in the wrong place in the sentence and lo 90 rows of sweater sleeve later, in a few-minute break between training sessions, a little tiny slip of time that is not nearly enough to behold the fact that you've just completely effed both the sleeves and the plan to have the whole shebang seamed and steamed and ready mere hours after summer of socks 2008 started, it was exactly that that I had to behold, which really really sucked.

Socks. FOs. Maybe some crochet. These are the things that I will tell you about when I remember how to end sentences and fix on the sock knitting, which I have missed terribly.

sock sock funtime

This:



is monkabiddy - Monkey in Chickabiddy. It did that thing that I love in the twisted ribbing, alternating the same colors over two rows, which I believe also happened in my Dreidel Pomatomi. Love that STR + Cookie.

Also, how is it that Monkey socks seem to knit up faster than plain stockinette?

I abandoned the Quill Lace in Maizy socks. After finally getting the pattern going, it was biasing like crazy and looking otherwise unhealthy



-- I think the pattern might be better suited to a slightly more wimpy/relaxed/something like that yarn. I had been pretty determined to get those done before Summer of Socks starts 6/21, and found another pair with lots of holes to try out, but then came upon this perfect solution -- the Summer 2008 Socks that Wendy is designing for SoS 2008. So I'll wait until then. Signups are open until May 15, so if you've been meaning to sign up and also want a really really holey sock pattern, get thee over there!

the quill lace, it is killing me.

Hey, guess what kind of sucks? Casting on in Maizy. Also, casting on in Maizy for the fourth time sucks even worse. Also, I have just learned, does the fifth time.

I'm on try #5 for Quill Lace, and while each frogging after #2 has me deciding to use a different pattern, or start a completely different project instead, I keep coming back. This is one of the simpler lace patterns I've ever tried. It's a centered decrease, 2 yos, and 3 knit stitches. I should be able to handle this, so by God I'm going to handle it.

LOST: Month, 30 days. Responds to "April," white star on its forehead.

Hey yo. What happened? My head is still spinning. In four-ish months, we will move to a city that before two weekends ago, I had never seen. Where things cost double what they cost here. In related news, I haven't bought yarn for over a month. But that is neither here nor there, this here is a knitting weblog, and there has been knitting.

My sweater has been resurrected, and the back is done, and I'm partway through the cabling on the front.



I worked on it in the back of the rental car as we drove all over tarnation looking for an apartment to rent. Here are the ways in which I screwed it up:

1) I placed the first of the three cables wrong. Frogged: about 15 rows.
2) I skipped a couple rows, thereby making the cable circles too squat. Frogged: about 24 rows.
3) I BO on the wrong row, then the wrong row again, then too many, then switched the cables around, then etc. Over and over. Tink tink tink.

The mitered squares are coming along. Have I mentioned this here yet? I'm going to make a big snuggly sockyarn afghan from leftovers, a la everyone else in the universe, and yay is it fun. It's not especially attractive at this point, but I'm planning on lining all the squares with black, and in refusing to plan ahead this will probably take a crochet hook, an undetermined amount of black sock yarn, lots of creative swearing, hours of frustration, and the invention of a new kind of stitch/join that hasn't ever been invented for a reason.



I'm excited.

Finally, the Embossed Leaves are coming along slowly but surely. Counts against them are that I need to concentrate on the pattern, I like to work on them with enough time to complete an entire chart repeat, preferably for both socks, and that the 2.75s I'm using are Knit Picks metal and thus clinkey as hell, which drives Other shouty crackers. So it's a miracle I'm making any progress at all, and I am itching to get them off the needles so I can cast on some summer socks.

Oh, and I signed up for Summer of Socks, because summer is coming and I will be knitting socks. Woot!

Je suis belle et ça ne demande aucun effort.

A lot of people have said a lot of things about the Clapotis. And sometimes people can say that they do not like something while simultaneously implying that everyone who does is a simpleton with poor taste. The Clapotis is popular, and inevitably with things that are popular, a percentage of people will sniffily say that they don't get what all the fuss is about; they don't knit things just because those things are popular.

Really, does anybody choose to knit something they don't genuinely like just because it's popular? I don't know anybody who does that. (Um, I mean, I do spend a lot of time alone, so a survey of my knitting buddies does not a good sample make.) People might take a second look at something because it's popular, wondering what attraction they missed the first time around, but I can't even imagine someone picking out yarn and casting on something, saying "Well, gosh, I hate wool-silk blends and wrappy scarf things, but it's popular, so..." It seems just as silly to refuse to knit something you genuinely like just because lots of other people have.

So, jeez, anyway, here's my Clapotis:



I really like it. News flash: shawls are warm in a different way that scarves are warm! And once again I need to learn from experience something that women have known for hundreds of years.



When I first saw this pattern, which must have been pretty early in my knitting career, I thought it looked nice but had no desire for a massive worsted-weight wool scarffy-wrap thing. This feeling persisted until it started to get chilly in the fall, and on my way out the door one evening I found myself wishing I had a Clapotis to grab. That was all the incentive I needed for this puppy.

Midway through it, I wanted nothing but to be done with it, and now all I want is to cast on another. Luckily I don't have 3-4 skeins of any yarn that would be remotely appropriate, so I can turn to other things.

FO: Super Easy Totally Soft and Warm Legwarmers

Yarn: Cascade 220 Quatro and Crystal Palace Yarns Kid Merino
Pattern: Super Easy Legwarmers from Last Minute Knitted Gifts
Needles: Size 8 dpns
Modifications: None whatsoever. Oh, except I made them shorter.

Turns out when you make these 15 3/4" long, you can get a full pair out of one skein of the Quatro with about a foot of yarn left over. That was an exciting finish, made slightly less exciting by the fact that I'd gotten two skeins of it. I'd been hoping to make the Mrs. Beetons out of my leftovers, but it seems silly to break into a skein for them, so that's on hold for now.

In other news, I cast on for a Clap-oh-sweet-Jeebus-is-this-thing-seriously-not-finished-yet? and it's coming along nicely. If slowly. It's currently about 50" long from the end to the middle of the (slanted) working row. Here are the specs:

Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy, colorway Deep Seaflower
Pattern: Clapotis
Needles: size 4 Addi Lace
Modifications: yarn sub, shooting to meet pattern schematics with a different gauge



This is the same Smooshy that my Endpaper Mitts are made out of, and it is very, very ocean-y, blue with hints of purple and green.



And, finally: the Sundara poll. I had actually been pulling for the scarf, but the socks took the early lead. So, I figured, hey, the internets knows what it's talking about -- socks it is. There's a decent chance that that particular color should not even be coming within five feet of my face anyway, because warm yellows tend to make me look like microwaved death. (I'm a Fall. Or Summer. Or whichever one can basically only wear dark blue.) But now, scarf is even with socks at three votes. Hmm. Maybe the microwaved death question will be the tiebreaker.

Sundara

In browsing through Ravelry and various other places, I found this lovely scarf (Rav link) and these lovely socks (see Socks of Kindness in Sundara s.y.). I had given up on the idea of the scarf in it, because it's only 400 yards, but smelinda ended up with way more than enough yardage for the pattern, so it's back in the running.

Given this yarn:



And given that I don't plan on buying very much Sundara s.y.(*cough*$$$$*cough*) and given that I want to have about 30 yards left over to make a mitered blanket square...

What do you think I should do?


Feel free to leave impassioned arguments for one or the other, alternative suggestions, or creative insults in the comments.

Stop! In the name of mymittsareawesome...

I totally love these. They were great fun to knit, fit very well, and are warm warm warm. The only problem I have with them is that I have to take my watch off to wear them, which puts me in deep ignorance of the time and at a big risk of losing my watch. It's from Target, not exactly a family heirloom, but I like it and really want to keep track of it. Anyway, stats:

Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in Deep Seaflower colorway (Warning: looks virtually nothing like the manufacturer's colorway pictures; check Ravelry for an idea of what it really looks like.) and Louet Gems in Cream
Pattern: Endpaper Mitts by Eunny Jang
Needles: 3.0mm KnitPicks Nickel plated (Medium size)
Modifications: None? None. I did use a different tutorial than the one she suggests for the tubular cast-on, because the one she linked crashed my browser on multiple attempts to access it, and so I left off the set-up rows for CO and BO. All else was done as the pattern said to.



Picture-taking had to be solo and the day was cloudy, so these are not the greatest shots. I wanted to get them done, though, before I wore them -- the Endpaper Mitts have lots of natural predators, such as the slightly torn steering wheel cover, the car keys, and the Overexcited Mutts Welcome Home Committee.



Anyway, I highly recommend this pattern and am plotting to make another pair soon, this time out of some nice Koigu. The Smooshy and the Gems did not come close to being the same thickness, and I was still working out tension issues through these, which makes them not quite as matchy as I would like. The next pair will be knit better, and probably loved about the same.

Moving On

After finishing the second ridiculously long single rib scarf in four months, my life became a desolate, lonely, empty wasteland. I became unsure about what my values were, and I felt my identity slowly melting back into the void. With the little strength and motivation that remained, I bleakly cast on for some Super Easy Legwarmers.



Ah! All better, tra la la. Sweet Single Rib eases the feeling of impending existential doom.

But for serious, I am loving these legwarmers. When I put the mohair (Crystal Palace Kid Merino) next to the Cascade 220 Quatro (color 5016) for the first time yesterday (terrible, considering I've had both for months with the intent to use them together) I kind of thought "ew." The mohair shade is a lot cooler than the kee-razy purple/pink of the Cascade. But knit up, it's pleasantly blendy and fluffy. These suckers are going to be warm.

I took Emily's excellent advice, and cast on some Endpaper Mitts:



And I'm loving them. I've done colorwork before - Ufserud is languishing, needle-less, in the UFO pile, though, so I've yet to actually complete colorwork. But, working with a yarn from each hand wasn't a completely new concept for me, and I'm getting more proficient at it. That's a really nice feeling.

This yarn is Louet Gems Fingering in Cream and Dream in Color Smooshy in Deep Seaflower. I got 3 skeins of the Smooshy with a Clapotis in mind, and expected to have enough left over for a pair of socks. The Smooshy goes really really far, I've found, so I still may get some socks out of it, too, once the Clapotis is done.

Funny that when the Clapotis and Endpaper Mitts came out, I liked them but had no intention of ever making them. Then in the fall, I woke up one morning and found myself wishing I had a Clapotis to wear. Surprising, but I went with it. Same deal for the Endpaper Mitts -- no desire to do such teeny colorwork, but then when my hands started freezing at work, they were all I could think about.

If you're looking for stuff to do on Ravelry, try the Endpaper Mitts gallery. The color combinations are endlessly entertaining.

Fee Fie FO: Gimme Scarf!

Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, 4 skeins black, 4 skeins orange
Inspiration: a scarf Keith Richards wears in Gimme Shelter
Needles: size 8 straights
Pattern: Yarn is doubled. Entire scarf is worked in single rib. CO 48 stitches, work with main color for 28 rows, switch to CC for 28 rows. Repeat until you have 9 sections of MC (8 of CC), bind off. Weave in ends, add 4" of fringe to each end (by which I mean, cut 8" lengths).



Keep in mind that this scarf is long relative to a 6' tall Other. It's 103". That's 43" longer than my tape measure. If you want a shorter scarf... stop sooner.

Socks, socks, stuff

My knitting efforts have been largely reduced to ball-winding and dreams these days. Well, and knitting -- plodding through the end of Gimme Scarf, which should be done here soon, with a bit o' winter left to enjoy it. And two finished pairs of socks:



Yarn: Knit Picks Felici in the Arugula colorway
Pattern: plain stockinette over 72 stitches
Needles: Size 0 Harmony

These socks were knit mostly in the dark; cuff #1 was Juno and The Savages, and cuff #2 was There Will Be Blood and License to Wed. One of those last two easily qualifies as the greatest movie I've ever seen -- I'll let you guess which. Oh, and with these I discovered that my in-the-dark gauge may actually be different than my with-sufficient-light gauge. Weird.



Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in the Giant Peach colorway
Pattern: Charade
Needles: Size 1 Knit Picks nickel-plated
Modifications: my own heel and toe, co 68 instead of 64

These were super-fun reward socks, which guarantees what feels like a breakneck pace. But while I felt that these were finished in no time at all, they actually took about a month.

I wore these this week, and while the Smooshy is lovely, I'm having doubts about its purpose as a sock yarn; the best way to describe the ball of the foot after one wear is "smashed." I'm definitely withholding judgment for now, but am planning a couple non-sock projects with the Smooshy in the near future.

I love how this yarn worked with the Charade pattern, and find that stitch pattern to be terribly clever. I can confirm Ravelry reports that it is less stretchy than a regular rib.



This gorgeous thing is a skein of mediumweight STR in Fred Flintstone. I got it through a swap with a generous Raveler and have been planning to make some Swirl socks with it, but after winding it up, two things are blocking my path. 1) This yarn should be knit in the month of November, and no other time, and 2) This yarn should be paired with Sunstone and made into a Chevron Scarf. Yarn doesn't normally speak to me like this (so forcefully!) so I've put it aside and am eyeing it warily from time to time.

Up next are more socks, though I'm not sure which yet, a Clapotis, and some Endpaper Mitts. What's at the top of your queue?

Done Pinwheel, Diamond Patch Socks

Done!



Pattern: Pinwheel Blanket (Rav link)
Yarn: KP Shine Sport, about 7-ish skeins
Needles: size 6, one set DPNs, two sets DPNs, Inox circ, Addi Turbo circ

I'm very happy with this. I wove in the ends and secured them with sewing thread at our Knit Night, grousing all the way. But it gives me peace of mind, and when you knit something that you hope will be used for years, you need peace of mind.

I joke about having so many cousins and innocently having knit a blanket for the first child without realizing that it was going to obligate me to knit one for so many others, but really, I very much like doing this. I believe in handknits the way that some people believe in... I don't know, sacraments? (Without being as important as all that, of course.) What I mean is that I believe that this gesture means something. One ought to welcome new beings with things one has made by hand, just for them. And I feel like things that are easy replace things that are meaningful too often.

Bah.


I was poking through my queue on Ravelry, and came across the Diamond Patch Socks (Rav link) sitting so calmly in my queue, so I thought I'd write about them. My awesome, indulgent mom got the pattern for me for Christmas, and I eagerly sat down to look it over after the yarn buzz had worn off a bit. And it is 12 pages long, and each and every page hurts my head in a unique way. I've not done miters before, though I want to do a sockyarn blanket using mitered squares and understand the basic technique that that will use. Can't uncross my eyes long enough to figure out if it's the same as the one being used here.

I can and have enjoyed healthy, stimulating challenges. But this time, I took some self-protective action:



I put this tiny little book in a page protector and buried it under a pile of stuff.
Come mid-August, when the sun is melting plastic for sport and 3 matching skeins of Koigu have magically appeared in my stash, that might be the time. Now is not the time.