Knit On

So, a few days ago I was doing a few chores around the house, thinking about writing my next blog post (on trying to hold off a rampant case of Startitis) when I got a phone call that my Mother had had a stroke and was being taken to the hospital. There followed several days of anxious stays in emergency rooms, long drives to the hospital and back, and waiting – waiting, waiting, waiting.

Shetland Triangle, in progress; Malabrigo Silky "Indiecita"

Through it all I kept my knitting with me – two projects – and I thought often of Elizabeth Zimmermann and her wise words: “Knit On, with confidence and hope, through all crises.” I pondered the soothing power of knitting, how the rhythm of one stitch at a time can create calm and focus. I’m a worrier – worry, worry, worry. I can turn a small problem into a big one, and a big problem into a catastrophe quicker and with more creativity than anyone. Knitting allowed me to think through the problems and issues we were facing without panic, it filled that seemingly endless waiting with something useful and productive and it brought a little color and softness to darkened rooms and medical machinery.

Spring Forward sock; Dream in Color Smooshy "Cool Fire"

We are extremely lucky in our crisis; my Mother’s stroke was relatively mild, she received medical attention very quickly and we live just over an hour from one of the best medical facilities in the country. While she has some rehabilitation work ahead of her and we will have to make some adjustments to her home and routines, the prognosis for her to return to her independent lifestyle is very good.

And, thanks to the power of knitting, I didn’t lose my mind.

Knit on.

This Just In – I’m Not French

So, I wore the Forest Canopy shawl to work a couple days ago and – it was not horrible. No one would ever mistake me for one of those effortlessly stylish French women, but it looked pretty good – not too nana-ish and nobody laughed (to my face anyway) It did start to get a bit fiddly toward the end of the day, but that’s kind of par for the course for me. I’m not sure the shirt I wore it with was the best choice, but I’m willing to play around with it a bit and try some variations. And I already have yarn and patterns for some more shawls. Maybe I should look into taking French lessons? Ooh-la-la!

When not flinging shawls over my shoulder I’ve been swatching. I hate swatching. Yes, yes – I know how important and vital it is, how the fate of world peace teeters on whether I knit a gauge swatch and I know that people say knitting a gauge swatch is knitting which is what you love to do anyway and that you’re learning incredibly valuable information about the fabric and pattern and how the item will fit, etc etc.

I hate it when people have unassailable arguments against me.

Even though at the moment we’re having the hottest, most humid weather of the year so far, I have a strong urge to knit sweaters. Several sweaters. I guess I hear “late summer” and I start thinking winter! So, I’ve been busy pouring over my Ravlery queue and my stash and trying to match the perfect pattern with the perfect yarn.

Call it lazy, or uncreative, or chicken but more and more I find I have much better luck getting a wearable finished product if I use the yarn indicated in the design. (To make matters worse, I often go with the same color as shown in the pattern!) Ravelry has helped somewhat, especially on really popular patterns, where I can see other yarns that have worked well; I’m still an inexperienced enough knitter that I don’t always pick up on the qualities of a yarn that would make it suitable or not (plys and twists and such)

So, I’ve been swatching, swatching, swatching and have come up with several matches. Some call for lighter, DK weight yarns which I think may be a little more versatile. Of course, I’ve got way more projects than I’ll get done, but I’m quite excited by all of them and eager to get started, although I need to do a needle inventory and fill in some gaps. In the meantime, I’ve got a cotton tank and another shawl on the needles. More on those next time.

And Now, By Popular Demand…

OK, there was no demand,  but I’m bringing you the modeled shots of the Forest Canopy shawl anyway.

close-up

in action

artsy

I have a pretty little shawl pin (you can just barely make it out in the second photo) which is a big help keeping the shawl in place, but it’s a little too dark against this yarn color to show nicely. Darn! I’ll have to go shopping for another one! And I’ll have to knit another shawl in a lighter color, just for this shawl pin! The sacrifices I make for my knitting…

It remains to be seen if I’ll actually wear it out and about. I saw a discussion on Ravelry that asked, “how do you wear your shawls and not look like a little old lady?” Basically the answer was, you don’t.  I think the smaller size of this one helps – it’s more of an accent or accessory. I’ll give it a try and get back to you.

Love at First Sight

The minute I saw this pattern, I knew I had to knit it. It reminded me of another Cookie A pattern, my beloved Pomatomus socks with it’s twisted stitches and flowing ridges, which was fun to knit and produced perfect fitting, beautiful socks. I was a goner for this pattern.

Pattern: Marlene by Cookie A

Yarn: Madelinetosh Sock in colorway “Wood Violet”

Notes: Like any love story, things didn’t always go smoothly. Maybe the fact that we weathered the tough patches together and are still together means this is one that will last?

One problem was the gauge – the pattern calls for sport weight sock yarn knit with a gauge of 24 stitches to 4 inches. Well, ok. But then the patterns has you cast on 68 stitches for the cuff – my standard sock with fingering weight yarn casts on 64 stitches! This seems backwards to me – shouldn’t I be casting on fewer stitches with sport weight yarn? There was some discussion on Ravelry that the twisted stitches cause the fabric to pull in a lot, but I remain puzzled.

Now, I have to admit, I have several major gauge issues – math for one thing (math of any kind mostly completely bamboozles me), understanding the basic principals of gauge (it just keeps slipping out of my grasp….) and the fact that I am the absolute loosest knitter ever, apparently. And finally, I have long skinny feet and long, skinny ankles (sadly, this trend stops with my ankles) so I need a narrow fit.

I’ve kind of cobbled together my own rules for gauge and one of them is, when knitting socks, cast on 64 stitches, give or take a couple of stitches, in fingering weight yarn. So, for Marlene, I followed the pattern as written, but used fingering weight yarn. Somehow, it worked – the socks are a nearly perfect fit.

Another problem was the stitch pattern. It took me For. ev. er. to get a handle on it. I’m not sure why – most people on Ravelry indicated that they had no problem catching on – but I struggled and counted and tinked for ages over the chart. This did not make for a good travel project and it – obviously – made progress agonizingly slow. Then, finally, as I finished the leg of the first sock, the veil lifted and Aha! – all became clear. And easier and – again, obviously – fun. And much faster.

I also wasn’t real thrilled with the way the pattern was written. This is absolutely no reflection on the designer, but rather simply a fact of life for patterns published in magazines (I’ve read that the best patterns are usually found in PDFs that you download since there are few if any space constraints) There was a single chart (two, one for the leg and one for the instep would have been better) and it was a skimpy chart at that – you had to remember to add stitches before and after the given chart, depending on what part of the pattern you were on. The written instructions were curt and sometimes slightly mysterious; some of the chart symbols were explained on a different page in the magazine and the pictured sock, which showed twisted stitches running to the tip of the toe, were written with a stockinette toe. The errata for this detail simply said “shape the toe can be worked continuation of the ribbing as shown”. A couple of hints on how to do this while decreasing would have been nice; as it is I made it up as I went along and it seems to be fine.

Despite all the trials and tribulations, I stuck with these socks (although we were “on a break” for awhile!) and I’m glad I did. I still love the look of the pattern, the way it flows into the heel and toe. The yarn is absolutely and completely divine; the color is sublime. The socks look lovely and unique and they fit well. True love is taking the bad as well as the good – must be true love.

Lace for the Unconvinced

Ta da! My first lace shawl (shawlette, really) is finished. Fast! Quick! Easy! The question remains – will I actually wear it?

Pattern: Forest Canopy by Susan Lawrence

Yarn: Malabrigo Silky, colorway “blackberry”

Notes: This is a great project – wonderful instructions that are not only clearly written but are filled with lots of tips and tricks for lace knitting, a simple but effective lace pattern that is easy to “read”, knitting that is interesting but quick and satisfying, all resulting in a finished product that is lovely to behold. As you can tell, I’m quite happy with this little shawl.

I used almost exactly two skeins of the Malabrigo Silky, with just 3 yards left over – an excellent usage of available yarn! (I hate those 1/2 to 1/3 of leftover skeins – too much to throw out but not enough to really do anything with!) A tiny bit nerve-wrecking at the end, but not too bad. I made twelve repeats (counting the set up rows) of the leaf pattern, creating the perfect little shawlette with a wingspan of 54″ and a “backbone” of 27″. It took me a couple weeks to knit this, but you could easily finish one in just a few days with more dedicated attention – perfect for a gift knit.

The yarn is fabulous – so soft with a little color variation that kept things interesting. It blocked beautifully, bringing the pattern into focus and holding nice sharp points on the edge. Plus, it’s purple. Love.

It remains to be seen if I’ll actually wear it. I’ve played around with it in front of the mirror a bit, and I hope to have some modeled shots soon, but I wonder about wearing it through a workday – guess I’ll have to try it and see! It seems like a little shawl would be perfect for those transitional seasons of fall and spring when it’s too warm for a heavy sweater, but too cool for sleeveless/short-sleeves. I just don’t want to look matronly when wearing it!

I’m also not sure that this really qualifies as lace lace, you know? The pattern is written for DK weight yarn (such as Malabrigo Silky), not lace weight (although many people have knit it with lace weight) I’ve tried knitting with lace weight and struggled, not so much with the patterns (the beginner patterns are mostly just basic knitting stitches) but with the yarn itself and getting the right tension. It just never felt comfortable. I remember a similar struggle the first time I knit with fingering weight, but I quickly figured that out. Not so fast with the lace weight. I have a couple skeins of lace weight in the stash, so I will try again someday.

In the meantime, I also have some more Malabrigo Silky in the stash – and I have plans for you my pretties!

Jumping off the Crazy Train

I was going to knit a new Cookie A sock pattern from her book, Sock Innovation, each month until I’d knitted them all.

I got through two months.

Then my easily distracted mind (oooh! shiny!) got distracted and I had a sudden and overwhelming urge to knit some lace.

The “funny” thing about wanting to knit lace is that I’m not even sure I’m a Lace person; I’m a little afraid that it will be another case of Capri Pants Phenomenon.

(Capri Pants Phenomenon: Wherein you notice someone wearing capri pants and think – “Wow. They look great! I gotta try some capri pants” – but when you get into the dressing room and look at yourself in the mirror wearing capri pants your mind screams (not out loud, thankfully) “Get them off! Get them Off! GET THEM OFF NOW!” as if the capri pants were a stampeding herd of spiders)

I tend to be a somewhat restrained dresser – t-shirt/sweatshirt/sweater and shorts/jeans/slacks kind of gal. I like to think of my style as “classic”; many would call it “boring”.

So I’m not sure where Lace fits into my “style”.

obviously, Isabel IS a Lace kind of gal

Nevertheless, I’ve merrily left behind any hope of knitting a Sock Innovations sock each month and am now knitting Lace. Specifically, the Forest Canopy shawl in Malabrigo Silky, “blackberry” colorway.

I can hardly wait to block it.

(Maybe that’s why people knit Lace – not to wear it, but to block it! Watch those points sharpen and the pattern pop! Bit sadistic that…)

But no fears Sock Fans – I have no intention of stopping the knitting of socks. For one thing, there’s an enormous amount of sock yarn in my house, all of which I love passionately. Secondly, socks remain the ideal travel companion – quiet, entertaining and they never argue with you over the window seat. And thirdly, there are several trillion bazillion sock patterns out there that I just have to knit.

Sock knitting continues, I’m just jumping off that Crazy Train that imposes deadline stress and narrows knitting choices to just socks socks socks.

Of course, this isn’t to say I won’t be punching a ticket for a different Crazy Train (or TrainS – I’m pretty good at driving myself nutso) sooner rather than later.

But for the moment anyway, I’m on my own.

Caution: Post May Contain Actual Knitting Content

Look! Actual knitting! Actual finished knitting! Very exciting times indeed.

actual knitting content

Pattern: Sunshine Socks by Cookie A.

Yarn: ShiBui Sock, color “Kiwi”

Notes: Once I got settled on a yarn, these socks went quite quickly. The pattern repeat is intuitive and easy to follow. I like knitting socks with repeating charts like this, since they seem to go quickly. Also, so long as I remember to make a few notes, it seems easier to make the second sock a perfect match.

My main struggle was with settling on the right yarn. The first two yarns I tried turned out to be splitty (I’d never used either before); they couldn’t hold the cable twists and they were extremely frustrating to work with. Both were lovely, so I’ll try them again with a lace or plain pattern.

For this sock, the third yarn was the charm – my beloved ShiBui Sock in a luscious lime green. I heart ShiBui! It has a nice firm twist that works beautifully with fancy stitches, it’s soft but sturdy (so far – the finished socks I’ve worn are holding up well) and it comes in beautiful, semi-solid colors. I’ve read some complaints that it pools, but I’ve found that the lighter colors perform beautifully with no pooling and I don’t mind the pooling on the darker colors so long as it doesn’t distract from the pattern.

toe study

I used just two skeins (191 yards each) of ShiBui for these socks. Depending on the pattern, I sometimes need to dip into a third skein to accommodate my long feet. The length of the leg and the type of stitches used makes a huge difference – a shorter leg (Twisted Tulip) takes less while cables or twisted stitches (Pomatomas) takes more. I know – this is Knitting 101, but it seems the light is just dawning for me.

I also struggled a bit with gauge again. I dropped down to a US 0 for these, which isn’t too far out of line (the pattern calls for US 1 1/2; I usually drop one or two needles sizes for most patterns) But I also changed needles in the midst of this project, going from the super-slick Knit Picks Harmony’s to the slightly less slick Clover bamboos and the fit of the socks came out perfect. I’m thinking that the additional drag – minuscule as it is – is just enough to slow down my stitching so that I tighten the yarn more as I go. Hmmmm. Well. That theory might not hold up to scrutiny but I like it, so I’m sticking with it. And with the Clover bamboos.

green sunshine

These socks were knit as part of the Sock Innovations KAL on Ravelry where a different pattern is knit each month. My idea was that I’d knit the chosen sock right at the start of the month, then work on other things – other socks, gift knits, the English Rug, summer knits – in the vast amount of time left over during that month. Ha Ha! I have three days left before the next sock begins…..hmmmm, maybe this isn’t going to work the way I’d planned…. (well, there’s a shock!) but I’m going to continue for now, especially since I really want to knit every pattern in the book. The yarn issues really slowed me down this time, and I’m still spending a lot of time in the garden, but that’s easing up. Maybe this plan will work in the future?! Only time will tell!

Ravelry Made Me Do It

Ravelry swag and sock knitting

Happy Ravelry-versay to me!

Today is my second anniversary with my much-loved Ravelry! It’s hard to believe it’s been two years – I can’t even imagine anymore what it was like before Ravelry – the pattern search, the ability to organize your projects, yarn and needles, the online community. I’m quite certain that I am a better knitter than I would be without Ravelry, and that I’ve stuck with knitting and pushed the limits of what I thought I was capable of. I’ve meet some wonderful people through Ravelry (although I’m only rarely in the forums), discovered incredible patterns and learned techniques I never even knew existed. And it just keeps getting better – fun new features are constantly being added.

So, thanks Ravelry! I’m looking forward to many more happy years together!

Dream in Color Smooshy "Cinnamon Girl"

Knitting time around here is still somewhat limited, but it is getting better. Above is evidence that I’ve made progress on my Sunshine socks. Sadly, this is still the first sock – I’m going to have to beat feet (haha! so funny am I) to get the pair done by June 30 (for the KAL) You might notice that this sock is not pink as described in my previous post; it is in fact actually lime green. The pink yarn (a beautiful heathered color from Araucania) was too splitty (as was the first yarn I tried for this sock) – it just couldn’t handle the cabling. So I went with an established favorite of mine – this is ShiBui Sock in “Kiwi”. Love it. And it’s cabling like a champ. The Araucania will be saved for a lacy pattern in socks or a scarf (someday)

Finally, to celebrate my Ravelry-versary I stopped by the LYS and bought myself a skein of sock yarn. What can I say? Ravelry made me do it!

Long Time No See

Hello Blog!

How have you been?

Yes, it’s been awhile, but that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten about you. You’ve actually been in my thoughts quite a bit.

What’s that? Oh. Yes – I’ve been busy. Very busy.

You see, it’s Gardening Season here and from about mid-April to mid-or-late-June it’s just crazy/insane/frantic out in the yard. I drag myself inside only when darkness or biting bugs force me to. And then I’m often so tired, I just sit and stare into space.

Haha – yes, sitting and staring into space is one of my more finely honed talents. Very funny.

Knitting? Yes, of course I’ve been knitting – you haven’t read about anybody being strangled around here lately, have you? Knitting keeps me (relatively) sane and out of jail.

Sadly, knitting has taken a hit during the Gardening Season too. Currently I’m knitting Sunshine for the June Cookie A Sock Innovation KAL, but I’ve been struggling a bit with yarn and needle choices. I’m on my second yarn choice (Araucania Itata) which is a gorgeous mostly solid dusty pink with the seductive name of #2006 and so far it seems to be ok; I’m a bit gun shy since the previous yarn kept splitting like a mad thing so I’m reserving a final judgement. Whatever the verdict, it sure is pretty.

Having to start over well over a week into the month has put me behind, so I’m concentrating just on the socks. All 20 minutes of my daily knitting time goes exclusively to Sunshine.

As noted in the last post (haha, I’m sure your memory is good enough to remember – it’s not like it was decades or centuries ago!), I finished up the May KAL sock (Kai-Mei) before the end of the month. Since I had some time before I could start the June sock, I quick knitted another Thermis for my friend Carol as a hostess gift. She lives in Wisconsin, so it should come in handy although she wasn’t really sure what it was and I had to demonstrate how it worked. Her enthusiasm seemed a bit tempered – maybe I should stick to gift certificates after this… What do you think?

I also attempted to do some more work on my first toe-up socks but finally had to admit that that Monster of Evil had returned. Yes, that’s right – gauge reared it’s ugly, disagreeable head and laughed at me. Why can’t it just leave me alone – I ask you – what have I ever done to it?

Apparently I’m knitting looser and looser in my old age. The pattern calls for a #0 needle for a 66 stitch sock; my basic sock is a #1 needle on 64 stitches. What? No, of course I didn’t do any math – what a silly thought! I just figured – intuitively – that’d I’d be ok. Of course, thanks to Evil Gauge, it wasn’t ok and I went on a search for teeny tiny needles.

It took quite a bit of searching, but I finally found HiyaHiya needles in #00 and #000 double points. Addi and Inox also have needles this small, but they’re 8 inches long (used by lace knitters); the HiyaHiya’s are 5 inches, much better for sock knitting. Interestingly, I also had to buy a new needle sizer since your regular sizers don’t go smaller than #0. (Well, I thought that was interesting!) Ravelry doesn’t even include needles smaller than #00 on their inventory chart. The needles were very reasonably priced and arrived almost instantly; I’m anxious to take them for a spin but they’ll have to wait their turn.

Well, Blog, it’s been fun catching up, but it’s getting late. Have to go put something on my bug bites and crawl into bed. I promise not to be away so long next time – maybe even bring along a finished knit or two. Until then, be good!

It’s not George Clooney’s Fault

Hello my knitting peeps! (heh – I always wanted to use that phrase) I bet all three of you were beginning to wonder what had happened to me. A romantic European tour with George Clooney? Piloting the space shuttle? On the run from the Mob? No! I’ll tell you what happened to me – May! May happened to me! And to a gardener (and the “flowergirl” in the name of the blog has nothing to do with weddings and everything to do with flowers), May is the Ultimate Month. So much to do! Finally! Outside! Warmth! Snow-free! Sunshine! FLOWERS! See:

now that's how you do pink

That’s a peony by the way; I have dozens of them crammed into my tiny yard and they’re my pride and joy. Along with about a zillion other plants and flowers and a few vegies. So, knitting and the English Rug have taken a backseat lately – I haven’t touched the English Rug all month (but I will get back to it!) and knitting time is limited to bits and pieces.

Those bits and pieces (and a couple sustained hours this afternoon) add up though and socks have been completed.

mirrors

Pattern: Kai-Mei by Cookie A

Yarn: Madelinetosh Sock, colorway “Gilded”

Notes: This is the first pattern I’ve done from Cookie’s new book, Sock Innovation and, typical of Cookie A patterns, it’s great fun and a little out of the ordinary. I love how the lace panel wraps from the side to the top, and that the right and left sock mirror each other. I did have some problems wrapping my head around the gusset (where the lace pattern begins) but that was this knitters inexperience rather than a problem with the pattern. I also got frustrated with the errata for this pattern – I think some of the errata needs an errata! It is disappointing that a book from a respected publisher would have so many mistakes; I’ve read that the first edition has sold out and that these mistakes will be corrected in the 2nd printing but that still leaves me with a flawed book (and I plan to make every pattern) Be sure to check the errata page!

wrapped in lace

I finished this sock as part of the May KAL for the Ravelry group Sock Innovation; there are other groups doing KALs for Cookie’s socks, but I decided to stick with this one because it is much more low-key than the others. With so much on my plate right now, I decided to go with clear and simple. The KAL – and Ravelry – were incredibly valuable since there is a lot of discussion about the pattern (and the errata) and many explanations on interpreting it. I might have thrown in the towel otherwise. What did we do before Ravelry?! (Oh Ravelry, how I love you!)

sidewinder

Because of all the straight ribbing on this sock, I decided this would be a good time to teach myself the Norwegian Purl (sounds like a beer hall dance, doesn’t it?) This is a way for continental knitters (pickers) to purl without stopping to move the yarn to the front of your knitting. Basically, you scoop up the yarn from the back (while holding it in the back like you do for a knit stitch) and the swoop it forward and the loop it under and twist your wrist  and wiggle your nose and viola! a purl stitch. (For a better – real – explanation and videos, check out YouTube) It’s supposed to help you knit faster since you don’t have to move the yarn back and forth but I’m not sure I ever got noticeably quicker. Also, I believe it made my gauge looser. Looser! Like I need to knit looser – I’m already too loosey-goosey in the knitting department as it is! It was a lot of fun to learn though – an interesting challenge – but I’ll probably stick with my “regular” purl.

love

And finally, the yarn? Madelinetosh? It just might be the most beautiful sock yarn ever. Silky soft yet substantial and with deep, gorgeous, subtly variegated color. It has a bit of sheen to it that makes it especially luxurious. A joy to knit with, a delight to wear. I think this might be true love.

I just hope George won’t be too heartbroken.